ISS 

X 


A  STUDY  IN 
ALEXANDER   HAMILTON 


BY 

FONTAINE  T.  FOX 

OF  THE  LOUISVILLE  BAR 


NEW  YORK  AND  WASHINGTON 

THE  NEALE  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 

1911 


Copyright,  1911.  by 
NEALE  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 


TO 
HON.  BOYD  WINCHESTER 

Former  Congressman  from  Kentucky,  Minister 

to  Switzerland,  and  my  classmate  and 

lifelong  friend,  this  book  is 

dedicated  by 

THE    AUTHOR 


238184 


CHAPTER  I 

In  the  study  of  history  and  in  the  study  of 
the  lives  of  great  men  the  moral  nature  of  the 
facts  of  both  studies  seems  to  escape  the 
thoughtful  attention  of  many  readers.  All  men, 
'  it  is  true,  read  with  their  eyes ;  but  equally  is  it 
true  that  only  a  few  read  with  their  minds.  That 
history  is  philosophy  teaching  by  example  has 
been  long  accepted  as  a  truism.  Indeed,  if  his 
tory  be  merely  a  chronicle  of  past  events,  it  is 
as  useless  as  worn  out  furniture,  and  should  be 
stored  in  the  attic  of  the  mind. 

The  facts  in  the  lives  of  great  men  are  the 
true    interpreters    of    their    real    characters. 
Through  these  facts  we  may  penetrate  to  the 
motives  of  men.    Through  the  moral  nature  of 
these  facts,  correctly  analyzed,  we  may  solve  the 
problems  of  the  lives  of  the  great  of  the  past 
/.with  the  unerring  certainty  of  a  mathematical 
''demonstration.    The  injustice  that  is  done  to  the 
,  (Character  of  some  men  is  due  more  to  the  ab- 
Isence  of  thought  in  the  mind  of  the  reader  than 
jto  hate,  envy,  or  to  prejudice,  while  the  enthusi 
astic  admiration  so  generally  given  to  others,  by 


10  A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDEK    HAMILTON 

which  they  get  the  start  of  this  majestic  world, 
may  be  attributed  to  the  same  cause.  Facts 
are  the  test,  the  true  index  to  the  character  of 
men. 

The  smaller  and,  apparently,  the  more  insig 
nificant  the  facts  in  their  nature,  the  surer  and 
the  more  indisputable  their  evidence  against 
men.  It  is  only  in  trifles  that  we  let  go  of  our 
selves,  get  off  guard,  act  out  of  our  inner  na 
ture,  and  are  as  God  made  us,  guided  by  the 
promptings  of  the  act  alone,  with  no  thought  of 
its  effect. 

I  began  the  study  of  the  life  and  the  character 
of  Alexander  Hamilton  with  a  feeling  similar 
to  that  of  a  surgeon  who,  scalpel  in  hand,  ap 
proaches  the  table  upon  which  lies  the  body 
that  he  intends  to  make  the  subject  of  a  surgical 
analysis.  Taught  to  respect  and  ix  admire  Ham 
ilton  from  my  earliest  years  by  my  father,  to 
whom  Hamilton  was  almost  an  ideal  man,  I  had 
accepted,  with  unquestioning  faith,  his  estimate 
of  the  man  as  just.  The  shock  was  great  when 
I  found  myself  rejecting  all  the  fabrication  of 
writers  who  were  dazzled  by  Hamilton's  im 
modest  assertion  of  his  own  abilities.  From 
intense  admiration,  I  came  to  hold  the  man  in 
contempt  for  his  life,  for  his  conduct,  and  for 
his  motives. 


A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON  11 

In  intellect  Alexander  Hamilton  was  a  giant ;  I 
in  character  he  was  morally  a  weakling.    With- 1 
out  a  father,  without  a  country,  without  a  God,  V- 
he  could  have  been  nothing  less  than  what  he  I 
was.    The  facts  of  his  career  prove  the  truth  of  j 
this  summary  of  the  man.  — * 

And  it  is  time  that  the  truth  should  be  told 
about  this  adventurer  in  American  politics. 
More  dazzling  in  manner  than  Benjamin  Dis 
raeli,  except  as  a  writer,  more  magnetic  in  char 
acter,  more  eloquent  in  debate,  and  more  ac 
complished  in  letters,  his  career  outshines  that 
of  the  great  Englishman,  whom  he  somewhat 
resembles.  He  possessed  to  an  eminent  degree 
those  qualities  of  mind  that  in  public  men  have 
in  all  ages  and  in'  all  countries  been  so  attractive 
to  their  fellownien,  and  for  which  they  have  al 
ways  been  forgiven  every  misdoing.  Where  the 
misdoings  of  such  men  could  not  always  be  con 
cealed,  always  they  have  been  defended  long  and 
vigorously,  until  they  have  never  failed  to  dwin 
dle  to  insignificant  faults,  or  to  mere  acts  of 
thoughtless  imprudence. 

)C  Hamilton's  character  in  private  life  will  be 
found  to  correspond  with  his  political  principles, 
the  former  in  reality  being  the  correlative  of  the 
latter. 

I  shall  consider  his  character  solely  upon  the 


12  A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON 

statements  made  in  the  "  vindication "  of  the 
charge  of  speculating  in  Treasury  warrants 
that  was  published  by  himself,  which  vindication 
now  lies  before  me. 

Before  making  any  extracts  from  Hamilton's 
vindication,  or  confession,  I  desire  to  state  that 
I  have  in  my  library  the  vindication,  Callender's 
two  books,  the  statements  in  one  of  which  caused 
Hamilton  to  publish  his  vindication,  and  also 
the  original  autograph  letter  of  Beverley  Ean- 
dolph,  about  the  trial  of  Callender  for  libel. 

The  title  page  of  the  vindication  is  as  follows : 
Observations  on  Certain  Documents  Contained 
in  No.  V  and  VI  of  "The  History  of  the  United 
States  for  the  Year  1796,"  in  Which  the  Charge 
of  Speculation  Against  Alexander  Hamilton, 
Late  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  is  Fully  Re 
futed.  Written  by  Himself.  Philadelphia: 
Printed  for  John  Fenno,  by  John  Bioren.  1797. 

My  extracts  will  be  taken  from  the  original 
sources,  not  from  other  books  and  pamphlets. 

Before  giving  the  statements  made  in  his  vin 
dication  I  shall  quote  from  two  authors,  of 
whom  one  refers  to  Hamilton  as  a  man,  the 
other  to  the  vindication.  I  quote  first  from 
Gouverneur  Morris,  who  delivered  Hamilton's 
funeral  oration : 


A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON  13 

"The  first  point  of  his  biography  is  that  he 
was  a  stranger  of  illegitimate  birth — some  mode 
must  be  contrived  to  pass  over  this  handsomely. 
He  was  indiscreet,  vain  and  opinionated — these 
things  must  be  told  or  the  character  will  be  in 
complete,  and  yet  they  must  be  told  in  such 
manner  as  not  to  destroy  the  interest.  He  was 
in  principle  opposed  to  republican  and  attached 
to  monarchial  government,  and  then  his  opinions 
were  generally  known,  and  have  been  long  and 
loudly  proclaimed.  His  share  in  forming  our 
Constitution  must  be  mentioned,  and  his  un 
favourable  opinion  can  not  therefore  be  con 
cealed.^  The  most  important  part  of  his  life  was 
his  administration  of  the  finances.  The  system 
he  proposed  was  in  one  respect  radically  wrong; 
moreover,  it  has  been  the  subject  of  some  just 
and  much  unjust  criticism.  Many  are  still  hos 
tile  to  it,  though  on  improper  ground.  I  must 
not  either  dwell  on  his  domestic  life ;  he  has  long- 
since  foolishly  published  the  avowal  of  conjugal 
infidelity." — Memoirs  of  Gouverneur  Morris,  2 
vols.,  pp.  456,  457. 

I  now  quote  from  the  Federalist  System,  by 
1.  S.  Bassett,  one  of  the  historical  series  in  The 
American  Nation — A  History,  pp.  215,  216: 


14  A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON 

"Soon  after  his  arrival  in  America  Monroe 
gave  a  savage  blow  to  Hamilton,  probably  in 
retaliation  for  the  latter 's  influence  on  his  recall. 
In  1792  one  Eeynolds  had  been  suspected  of 
frauds  against  the  government  and  the  affair 
had  taken  such  a  turn  as  to  suggest  that  Hamil 
ton  was  compromised  with  him.  The  evidence 
was  embraced  in  certain  letters  whose  real  im 
port  was  far  different  from  what  appeared  on 
the  surface.  The  matter  was  referred  to  three 
members  of  Congress — Monroe,  Venable,  and 
Muhlenberg.  To  them  Hamilton  owned  in  con 
fidence  that  the  letters  were  written  in  connec 
tion  with  an  illicit  relation  with  Mrs.  Eeynolds 
which  had  been  carried  on  with  her  husband's 
knowledge,  and  by  reason  of  which  Hamilton 
had  paid  Eeynolds  about  twelve  hundred  dollars 
for  blackmail.  The  three  men  were  satisfied, 
and  assured  the  public  that  Hamilton  was  inno 
cent.  The  papers  were  placed  in  Monroe's 
hands,  all  promising  to  keep  them  secret.  To 
them  Monroe  added  a  statement  by  Eeynolds 
which  was  not  submitted  to  Hamilton,  the  pur 
port  of  which  was  to  confirm  the  original  charge 
of  complicity  in  fraud.  It  was  a  piece  of  bad 
dealing  on  Monroe's  part,  and  came  near  in 
volving  the  two  men  in  a  duel  at  a  later  date. 


A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON  15 

When  Monroe  went  to  France  he  left  the  papers 
in  the  hands  of  a  friend  in  Virginia  whose  name 
has  never  been  revealed,  but  when  Callender's 
annual  register  appeared  in  1797  they  were 
given  to  the  public.  Hamilton  called  on  the 
three  custodians  for  an  explanation.  Muhlen- 
berg  and  Venable  promptly  and  explicitly  ex 
onerated  themselves,  but  Monroe  halted  and 
shifted  his  excuses  in  such  a  manner  that  it  is 
evident  that  he  was  responsible  for  the  revela 
tion.  It  is  assumed  that  he  disclosed  them  in 
revenge  for  his  own  sufferings. " 

In  considering  the  statements  of  this  extract 
I  have  been  at  a  loss  to  find  what  suffering  Mon 
roe  could  have  felt  by  reason  of  Hamilton 's  dis 
honorable  conduct  towards  his  own  wife,  or 
from  his  complicity  in  the  fraudulent  transac 
tion,  with  Eeynolds  as  his  agent,  to  speculate  in 
Treasury  warrants,  or  from  his  adulterous 
amour  with  Mrs.  Beynolds.  The  letters  men 
tioned  in  the  foregoing  extract  can  be  found  in 
Callender's  History  of  the  United  States  for 
1796,  beginning  on  page  209. 

Page  9 :  "  The  charge  against  me  is  a  connec 
tion  with  one  James  Eeynolds  for  purposes  of 


1C  A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON 

improper  pecuniary  speculation.  My  real  crime 
is  an  amorous  connection  with  his  wife,  for  a 
considerable  time  with  his  privity  and  conni 
vance,  if  not  originally  brought  on  by  a  combina 
tion  between  the  husband  and  wife  with  the  de 
sign  to  extort  money  from  me." 

Aaron  Burr  was  never  accused  by  his  bitter 
est  enemy  of  kissing  and  then  telling. 

A  critical  examination  of  the  vindication  no 
where  discloses  such  a  juncture  of  events  con 
nected  with  the  charge  as  would  render  this 
statement  in  any  way  logically  necessary  in  re 
futing  the  charge  of  speculation. 

Pages  9  and  10:  "This  confession  is  not 
made  without  a  blush.  I  can  not  be  the  apologist 
of  any  vice  because  the  ardour  of  passion  may 
have  made  it  mine.  I  can  never  cease  to  con 
demn  myself  for  the  pang,  which  it  may  inflict 
in  a  bosom  eminently  entitled  to  all  my  grati 
tude,  fidelity  and  love.  But  that  bosom  will  ap 
prove,  that  even  at  so  great  an  expense,  I  should 
effectually  wipe  away  a  more  serious  stain  from 
a  name  which  it  cherishes  with  no  less  elevation 
than  tenderness.  The  public  too  will,  I  trust, 
excuse  the  confession.  The  necessity  of  it  to 


A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDEK    HAMILTON  17 

my  defence  against  a  more  heinous  charge  could 
alone  have  extorted  from  me  so  painful  an  in 
decorum.  ' ' 

Why  drag  his  wife,  the  mother  of  his  children, 
into  this  nauseous  and  disgusting  muddle?  His 
character,  not  hers,  had  to  be  burnished  anew. 
What  was  his  conduct!  At  the  worst,  in  his 
opinion,  "an  indecorum "  only.  What  is  the 
statement  in  this  extract?  It  is  simply  the  cant 
of  a  sanctimonious  hypocrite  striving  to  use  a 
noble  sentiment  in  his  own  service,  in  the  hope 
that  its  invocation  would  regain  for  him  the  re 
spect  and  the  confidence  of  the  public. 

But  is  the  charge  of  speculation  in  Treasury 
warrants  ' '  a  more  heinous  charge ' '  than  treach 
ery  to  his  conjugal  vow? 

Suppose  his  wife  had  been  so  false  to  her 
conjugal  vow,  would  he  have  considered  her 
offense  less  heinous  than  that  charged  against 
him? 

Taking  his  own  estimate  of  his  honor  as  a 
man,  a  husband,  and  as  a  father,  you  have  the 
clew  to  this  creature's  despicable  character. 

He  sat  for  his  own  portrait.  And  he  has 
painted  himself  in  fadeless  colors  to  the  very 
life. 


18  A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON 

Page  17 :  "  Some  time  in  the  summer  of  the 
year  1791  a  woman  called  at  my  house  in  the 
City  of  Philadelphia  and  asked  to  speak  with 
me  in  private.  I  attended  her  into  a  room  apart 
from  the  family.  With  a  seeming  air  of  affliction 
she  informed  me  that  she  was  the  daughter  of 
a  Mr.  Lewis,  sister  to  a  Mr.  G.  Livingston  of  the 
State  of  New  York,  and  wife  to  a  Mr.  Keynolds 
whose  father  was  in  the  commissary  department 
during  the  war  with  Great  Britain,  that  her  hus 
band,  who  for  a  long  time  had  treated  her  very 
cruelly,  had  lately  left  her,  to  live  with  another 
woman,  and  in  so  destitute  a  condition,  that 
though  desirous  of  returning  to  her  friends  she 
had  not  the  means — that  knowing  I  was  a  citizen 
of  New  York,  she  had  taken  the  liberty  to  apply 
to  my  humanity  for  assistance. " 

Humanity  seems  a  strange  word  to  use  in  this 
connection.  Charity,  I  believe,  is  the  word  gen 
erally  used  by  well  regulated  minds. 

Page  18 :  "I  replied  that  her  situation  was  a 
very  interesting  one — that  I  was  disposed  to  af 
ford  her  assistance  to  convey  her  to  her  friends, 
but  this  at  the  moment  not  being  convenient  to 
me  (which  was  the  fact)  I  must  request  the  place 


A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON  19 

of  her  residence,  to  which  I  should  bring  or  send 
a  small  supply  of  money.  She  told  me  the  street 
and  number  of  the  house  where  she  lodged.  In 
the  evening  I  put  a  bank  bill  in  my  pocket  and 
went  to  the  house.  I  enquired  for  Mrs.  Reynolds 
and  was  shewn  upstairs,  at  the  head  of  which 
she  met  me  and  conducted  me  into  a  bed  room. 
I  took  the  bill  out  of  my  pocket  and  gave  it  to 
her.  Some  conversation  ensued  from  which  it 
was  quickly  apparent  that  other  than  pecuniary 
consolation  would  be  acceptable. " 

Note  that  this  meeting  is  the  first  one  between 
Hamilton  and  Mrs.  Reynolds,  and  also  note  that 
this  meeting  occurred  in  the  summer  of  the  year 
1791.  Hamilton's  statement  is  the  pivotal  point 
of  the  whole  matter  as  to  her  husband  and  his 
charge  against  Hamilton. 

Page  21 :  "On  the  19th,  I  received  the  prom 
ised  letter  (No.  IV-b)  the  essence  of  which  is 
that  he  was  willing  to  take  a  thousand  dollars 
as  the  plaister  for  his  wounded  honour. 

"I  determined  to  give  it  to  him,  and  did  so  in 
two  payments,  as  per  receipts  (No.  V  and  VI) 
dated  the  22nd  of  December  and  3rd  of  January 
[1791]. » 


20  A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON 

Appendix,  p.  xv : 

"No.  V. 

"Received  December  22  of  Alexander  Hamil 
ton  six  hundred  dollars  on  account  of  a  sum  of 
one  thousand  dollars  due  to  me. 

"  James  Reynolds. 
"No.  VI. 

"Received  Philadelphia  January  3  1791  of 
Alexander  Hamilton  four  hundred  dollars  in 
full  of  all  demands.  James  Reynolds. " 

The  amounts  specified  in  these  two  receipts 
make  the  $1,000  mentioned  in  the  extract  of 
page  21,  while  the  receipts  are  those  mentioned 
in  the  same  extract.  They  are  so  fully  described 
that  no  one  can  be  mistaken  as  to  their  identity. 
This  $1,000  is  "the  plaister  for  his  [ Reynolds 's] 
wounded  honour." 

The  first  receipt,  No.  V,  is  dated  December 
22,  which  must  be  December  of  the  year  1790, 
because  receipt  No.  VI,  which  was  for  the  bal 
ance  of  the  $1,000,  was  dated  January  3,  1791. 
Consequently  Hamilton  plastered  Reynolds 's 
wounded  honor  at  least  six  to  eight  months  be 
fore  he  had  ever  seen  Mrs.  Reynolds,  "some 
time  in  the  summer  of  1791,"  unless  the  summer 


A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON  21 

of  1791  came  ahead  of  time  in  Philadelphia,  be 
fore  December  22,  1790,  and  certainly  before 
January  3,  1791.  Comment  is  unnecessary. 

Hamilton  seemed  to  be  absolutely  uncon 
scious  of  the  baseness  of  character  as  disclosed 
by  the  facts  that  he  himself  brought  forward  in 
his  defense. 

Page  18:  "After  this  I  had  frequent  meet 
ings  with  her,  most  of  them  at  my  own  house; 
Mrs.  Hamilton  with  her  children  being  absent 
on  a  visit  to  her  father. ' ' 

Did  any  other  man  claiming  to  be  a  gentleman 
ever  sink  to  such  degradation,  to  such  debauch 
ery,  then  publicly  confess  it  in  print?  Yet  this 
unscrupulous  creature  has  been  held  up  to 
American  youth  by  American  writers  of  biog 
raphy  and  of  history  and  by  American  states 
men  and  by  American  ministers  of  the  Gospel 
"as  the  glass  of  fashion  and  the  mould  of  form" 
—the  one  ideal  gentleman  known  to  American 
history,  to  American  society,  and  to  American 
politics.  Hamilton  turned  his  home  into  a 
bawdy  house. 

Immediately  following  the  extracts  relative  to 
the  two  receipts  I  find  this  sentence : 


22  A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDEK    HAMILTON 

Page  22:  "It  is  a  little  remarkable  that  an 
avaricious  speculating  secretary  of  the  treasury 
should  have  been  so  straitened  for  money  as  to 
be  obliged  to  satisfy  an  engagement  of  this  sort 
by  two  different  payments. " 

There  is  in  the  statement  in  this  extract  the 
artistic  touch  of  delicate  satire,  as  the  last  re 
ceipt,  No.  VI,  being  "in  full  of  all  demands " 
and  the  last  installment  of  the  "plaister"  ap 
plied  to  Reynolds 's  wounded  honor,  would  in 
clude  the  wages  due  Mrs.  Keynolds  for  her 
physical  services  as  well  as  the  amount  due  her 
husband  as  shown  by  the  balance  sheet  struck 
on  the  speculative  venture  of  Messrs.  Hamilton 
&  Reynolds.  But  Reynolds  could  see  what  was 
in  Future's  womb.  No  one  with  andmpartial 
mind,  critically  reading  this  vindication,  can 
conceive  that  Hamilton,  though  a  great  lawyer, 
had  the  slightest  conception  of  the  probative 
value  of  a  fact  upon  the  issue  as  to  what  was 
offered  in  evidence,  or  that  he  was  conscious  of 
the  effect  that  his  own  statements  wrould  have 
upon  public  opinion.  To  his  friends  this  con 
fession  must  have  produced  an  intense  feeling 
of  pity,  of  sympathy,  and  of  regret ;  to  his  ene 
mies,  a  feeling  of  unutterable  contempt  and 


A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON  23 

scorn  as  well  as  of  fiendish  delight ;  to  those  who 
were  neither  friend  nor  foe,  a  feeling  of  won 
derment  that  he  had  not  submitted  the  manu 
script  before  publication  to  a  true  friend,  who 
would  have  had  every  statement  relative  to 
Mrs.  Eeynolds  eliminated. 

While  all  the  loathsome  incidents  connected 
with  Hamilton's  connection  with  Mrs.  Reynolds 
are  given  publicly,  without  the  least  reserve,  at 
the  same  time  the  reader  is  told  by  Hamilton  of 
his  injury  to  his  wife,  to  his  own  conscience,  and 
to  his  honor.  Not  one  statement  about  Mrs. 
Eeynolds,  nor  his  own  wife,  nor  his  honor,  nor 
his  conscience  tends  in  the  slightest  degree  to 
disprove  the  charge  of  his  speculative  venture 
with 'Eeynolds.  The  charge  of  speculation  was 
abroad,  in  the  world  of  politics,  in  society,  at 
that  time. 

rT)ne  reading  the  vindication  at  this  day  does 
not  wonder  that  Hamilton's  descendants  have 
been  buying  it  up  for  over  a  hundred  years,  to 
suppress  it.  Only  at  very  long  intervals  can  a 
copy  be  found,  in  some  old  book  store,  by  one 
whose  curiosity  is  aroused  by  the  narratives  of 
writers  that  have  never  seen  it. 

The  literary  world  has  been  shocked  by  the 
confessions  of  Eousseau.  But  what  are  they 


A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON 

when  compared  to  the  confessions  of  Alexander 
Hamilton!  This  Eeynolds  episode  seems  con 
sidered  by  him,  as  it  was  certainly  treated,  as 
only  an  "indecorum"  in  his  private  and  social 
life. 


CHAPTER  II 

Bearing  in  mind  these  two  pivotal  facts,  that 
Alexander  Hamilton  first  met  Mrs.  Eeynolds 
"some  time  in  the  summer  of  the  year  1791, " 
and  that  for  her  services  in  that  behalf  (excuse 
the  language  of  the  bar,  but  it  is  so  expressive, 
so  descriptive),  he  paid  to  her  husband  $1,000, 
the  first  payment  being  made  December  22^1790, 
"on  account  of  a  sum  of  one  thousand  dollars 
due  to  me, ' '  and  the  second,  and  last,  being  made 
January  3,  1791,  "in  full  of  all  demands/'  It 
will  be  observed  that  these  receipts  bear  evi 
dence  of  the  touch  of  a  legal  hand.  If  Hamilton 
owed  Eeynolds  $1,000  on  December  22,  1790,  the 
debt  could  not  have  been  created  by  any  services 
rendered  to  Hamilton  by  Mrs.  Eeynolds,  be 
cause  at  that  time  Hamilton  had  not  seen  her; 
nor  did  he  see  her  for  at  least  six  months  after 
December  22,  1790.  The  pertinent  question 
springs  at  once  to  a  thoughtful  reader,  Upon 
what  account  did  Hamilton  owe  Eeynolds  that 
sum  of  money?  The  entire  transaction,  no  mat 
ter  to  what  it  related,  was  closed  by  the  payment 
of  January  3, 1791,  because  that  receipt  was  "in 

25 


26  A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDEB    HAMILTON 

full  of  all  demands. "  This  money  was  not  paid 
to  Eeynolds  on  account  of  any  connection  be 
tween  Hamilton  and  Mrs.  Keynolds,  because  if 
it  had  been  so  paid,  Hamilton  was  a  deliberate 
liar  in  giving  incorrect  dates  as  to  the  payments. 
He  had  no  motive  to  give  wrong  dates  if  he  in 
tended  this  money  as  a  "plaister"  to  Eeynolds 's 
wounded  honor.  Dates  subsequent  to  the  sum 
mer  of  the  year  1791  alone  would  prove  any  re 
lation  of  these  payments  to  a  connection  between 
Hamilton  and  Mrs.  Eeynolds. 

Pages  10  and  11:  "But  the  present  accusa 
tion  imputes  to  me  as  much  folly  as  wickedness 
— All  the  documents  show,  it  is  otherwise  matter 
of  notoriety,  that  Eeynolds  was  an  obscure,  un 
important  and  profligate  man.  Nothing  could 
be  more  weak,  because  nothing  could  be  more  un 
safe,  than  to  make  use  of  such  an  instrument ;  to 
use  him  too  without  any  intermediate  agent 
more  worthy  of  confidence  who  might  keep  me 
out  of  sight,  to  write  him  numerous  letters  re 
cording  the  objects  of  the  improper  connection 
(for  this  is  pretended  and  that  the  letters  were 
burnt  at  my  request),  to  unbosom  myself  to  him, 
with  a  prodigality  of  confidence,  by  very  un 
necessarily  telling  him,  as  he  alleges,  of  a  con- 


A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON  27 

nection  in  speculation  between  myself  and  Mr. 
Duer.  It  is  very  extraordinary,  if  the  head  of 
the  money  department  of  a  country,  being  un 
principled  enough  to  sacrifice  his  trust  and  his 
integrity,  could  not  have  contrived  objects  of 
profits  sufficiently  large  to  have  engaged  the  co 
operation  of  men  of  far  greater  importance  than 
Reynolds,  and  with  whom  there  could  have  been 
due  safety,  and  should  have  been  driven  to  the 
necessity  of  unkennelling  such  a  reptile  to  be 
the  instrument  of  his  cupidity." 

Are  men  of  "far  greater  importance  than 
Reynolds"  accustomed  to  be  willing  tools  or 
intermediate  agents  in  such  speculative  transac 
tions  ?  Would  Alexander  Hamilton  have  dared 
to  approach  any  man  of  known  honesty,  any  gen 
tleman,  to  engage  in  this  speculation!  As  to  his 
connection  with  Duer,  I  believe  it  to  be  true  that 
Hamilton  escaped  exposure  in  the  dishonest 
speculation  with  Duer  by  Duer's  very  fortunate 
death,  before  the  congressional  committee  in  its 
investigation  had  reached  Hamilton's  connec 
tion  with  the  Hamilton-Duer  speculation. 

But  would  it  have  been  possible  for  a  man  of 
despicable  character  and  of  low  social  position 
to  have  injured  in  any  way,  or  for  any  purpose, 


28  A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON 

a  man  of  Hamilton's  social  standing,  profes 
sional  character,  and  political  influence?  If  the 
charges  against  Hamilton  were  all  false,  and 
known  by  him  to  be  false,  would  he  not  have 
treated  them  with  the  silent  contempt  of  an  hon 
orable,  self-respecting,  and  courageous  man, 
trusting  to  the  impenetrable  shield  of  his  own 
honesty? 

I  quote  from  "Observations,"  etc. — really  a 
preface  to  the  vindication. 

"The  spirit  of  Jacobinism,  if  not  entirely  a 
new  spirit,  has  at  least  been  clothed  with  a  more 
gigantic  body  and  armed  with  more  powerful 
weapons  than  it  ever  before  possessed.  It  is 
perhaps  not  too  much  to  say,  that  it  threatens 
more  extensive  and  complicated  mischiefs  to  the 
world  than  have  hitherto  flowed  from  the  three 
great  scourges  of  mankind,  WAR,  PESTILENCE 
and  FAMINE.  To  what  point  it  will  ultimately 
lead  society,  it  is  impossible  for  human  fore 
sight  to  pronounce ;  but  there  is  just  ground  to 
apprehend  that  its  progress  will  be  marked 
with  calamities  of  which  the  dreadful  incidents 
of  the  French  revolution  afford  a  very  faint 
image.  Incessantly  busied  in  undermining  all 
the  props  of  public  security  and  private  happi- 


A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON  29 

ness,  it  seems  to  threaten  the  political  and  moral 
world  with  a  complete  overthrow. 

"A  principal  engine,  by  which  this  spirit  en 
deavours  to  accomplish  its  purposes  is  that  of 
calumny.  It  is  essential  to  its  success  that  the 
influence  of  men  of  upright  principles,  disposed 
and  able  to  resist  its  enterprises,  shall  be  at  all 
events  destroyed.  Not  content  with  traducing 
their  best  efforts  for  the  public  good,  with  mis 
representing  their  purest  motives, with  inferring 
criminality  from  actions  innocent  or  laudable, 
the  most  direct  falsehoods  are  invented  and 
propagated,  with  undaunted  effrontery  and  un 
relenting  perseverance.  Lies  often  detected  and 
refuted  are  still  revived  and  repeated,  in  the 
hope  that  the  refutation  may  have  been  forgotten 
or  that  the  frequency  and  boldness  of  accusation 
may  supply  the  place  of  truth  and  proof.  The 
most  profligate  men  are  encouraged,  probably 
bribed,  certainly  with  patronage  if  not  with 
money,  to  become  informers  and  accusers. 
And  when  tales,  which  their  characters  alone 
ought  to  discredit,  are  refuted  by  evidence  and 
facts  which  oblige  the  patrons  of  them  to  aban 
don  their  support,  they  still  continue  in  corrod 
ing  whispers  to  wear  away  the  reputation  which 
they  could  not  directly  subvert.  If,  luckily  for 


30  A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDEE    HAMILTON 

the  conspirators  against  honest  fame,  any  lit 
tle  foible  or  folly  can  be  traced  out  in  one  whom 
they  desire  to  persecute,  it  becomes  at  once  in 
their  hands  a  two-edged  sword,  by  which  to 
wound  the  public  character  and  stab  the  private 
felicity  of  the  person.  With  such  men,  nothing 
is  sacred.  Even  the  peace  of  an  unoffending  and 
amiable  wife  is  a  welcome  repast  to  their  in 
satiate  fury  against  the  husband. 

"In  the  gratification  of  this  baleful  spirit,  we 
not  only  hear  the  Jacobian  newspapers  continu 
ally  ring  with  odious  insinuations  and  charges 
against  many  of  our  most  virtuous  citizens ;  but, 
not  satisfied  with  this,  a  measure  new  in  this 
country  has  been  lately  adopted  to  give  greater 
efficacy  to  the  system  of  defamation — periodi 
cal  pamphlets  issued  from  the  same  presses,  full 
freighted  with  misrepresentation  and  falsehood, 
artfully  calculated  to  hold  up  the  opponents  of 
the  Faction  to  the  jealousy  and  distrust  of  the 
present  generation  and  if  possible,  to  transmit 
their  names  with  dishonour  to  posterity.  Even 
the  great  and  multiplied  services,  the  tried  and 
rarely  equalled  virtues  of  a  Washington,  can 
secure  no  exemption. 

"How  then  can  I,  with  pretensions  every  way 
inferior  expect  to  escape!  And  if  truly  this  be, 


A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON  31 

as  every  appearance  indicates,  a  conspiracy  of 
vice  against  virtue,  ought  I  not  rather  to  be 
flattered,  that  I  have  been  so  long  and  so  pecu 
liarly  an  object  of  persecution?  Ought  I  to  re 
gret,  if  there  be  anything  about  me,  so  formid 
able  to  the  Faction  as  to  have  made  me  worthy 
to  be  distinguished  by  the  plentitude  of  its  ran 
cour  and  venom ! 

"It  is  certain  that  I  have  had  a  pretty  copious 
experience  of  its  malignity.  For  the  honour  of 
human  nature,  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  ex 
amples  are  not  numerous  of  men  so  greatly 
calumniated  and  persecuted,  as  I  have  been, 
with  so  little  cause. 

"Belying  upon  this  weakness  of  human  na 
ture,  the  Jacobin  Scandal-Club,  though  often 
defeated,  constantly  return  to  the  charge/' 

As  a  very  striking  contrast  to  the  noble  and 
elevated  sentiments  expressed  in  the  preceding 
extracts,  so  creditable  to  Alexander  Hamilton, 
who  could  so  easily  and  naturally  act  a  virtue 
that  he  had  not,  I  copy  a  confidential  letter  that 
he  wrote  to  Justice  John  Eutledge,  one  of 
Aaron  Burr's  relatives.  Alexander  Hamilton 
evidently  had  a  Jacobin  scandal  club  of  his  own, 
of  which  he  was  the  sole  member.  This  letter, 


32  A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON 

with  editorial  introduction,  is  taken  from  The 
Century  Magazine  of  June,  1900. 

[The  following  letter  of  Alexander  Hamilton,  though 
addressed  to  John  Rutledge,  Associate  Justice  of  the  Su 
preme  Court,  was  found  among  the  papers  of  Francis  Hop- 
kinson,  one  of  the  signers  of  the  Declaration  of  Independ 
ence.  It  is  here  printed  from  the  manuscript.  Although  a 
small  portion  of  it  has  been  published  before,  as  a  whole  it 
has  not  appeared  before. 

The  enclosed  characterization  of  Burr,  it  is  believed, 
has  not  before  been  published,  though  in  large  part  it  is 
similar  in  expression  to  letters  addressed  by  Hamilton  to 
his  contemporaries  in  opposition  to  Burr's  political  aspira 
tions. — Editor.] 

"New  York  Jany.  4,  1801. 
"Mr  DEAR  SIR 

"My  extreme  anxiety  about  the  ensuing  elec 
tion  of  President  by  the  House  of  Representa 
tives  will  excuse  to  you  the  liberty  I  take  in  ad 
dressing  you  concerning  it  without  being  con 
sulted  by  you.  Did  you  know  Mr.  Burr  as  well 
as  I  do,  I  should  think  it  unnecessary.  With 
your  honest  attachment  to  the  country  and  cor 
rectness  of  views,  it  should  not  then  be  possible 
for  you  to  hesitate,  if  you  now  do,  about  the 
course  to  be  taken.  You  would  be  clearly  of 
opinion  with  me  that  Mr.  Jefferson  is  to  be  pre 
ferred.  As  long  as  the  Federal  party  preserve 
their  high  ground  of  integrity  and  principle,  I 


A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON  33 

shall  not  despair  of  the  public  weal.  But  if  they 
quit  it  and  descend  to  be  the  willing  instruments 
of  the  Elevation  of  the  most  unfit  and  most  dan 
gerous  man  of  the  community  to  the  highest 
station  in  the  Government  I  shall  no  longer  see 
any  anchor  for  the  hopes  of  good  men.  I  shall 
at  once  anticipate  all  the  evils  that  a  daring  and 
unprincipled  ambition  wielding  the  lever  of 
Jacobinism  can  bring  upon  an  infatuated  coun 
try. 

' '  The  enclosed  paper  exhibits  a  faithful  sketch 
of  Mr.  Burr's  character  as  I  believe  it  to  exist, 
with  better  opportunities  than  almost  any  other 
man  of  forming  a  true  estimate. 

"The  expectation,  I  know,  is  that  if  Mr.  Burr 
shall  owe  his  elevation  to  the  Federal  party,  he 
will  judge  it  his  interest  to  adhere  to  that  party. 
But  it  ought  to  be  recollected  that  he  will  owe  it 
in  the  first  instance  to  the  antifederal  party; 
that  among  these,  perhaps  not  in  the  House  of 
Eepresentatives,  a  numerous  class  prefers  him 
to  Mr.  Jefferson  as  best  adapted  by  the  boldness 
and  cunning  of  his  temper  to  fulfill  their  mis 
chievous  views ;  and  that  it  will  be  the  interest 
of  his  ambition  to  preserve  and  cultivate  these 
friends.  Mr.  Burr  will  doubtless  be  governed 
by  his  interests  as  he  views  it.  But  stable  power 


34  A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON 

and  wealth  being  his  objects — and  there  being 
no  prospect  that  the  respectable  and  sober  Fed 
eralists  will  countenance  the  projects  of  an  ir 
regular  ambition  or  prodigal  cupidity,  he* will 
not  long  lean  upon  them — but  selecting  from 
among  them  men  suited  to  his  purpose,  he  will 
seek  with  the  aid  of  these,  and  of  the  most  un 
principled  of  the  opposite  party  to  accomplish 
his  ends.  At  least  such  ought  to  be  our  calcu 
lation.  From  such  a- man  as  him,  who  practices 
all  the  maxims  of  a  Catiline,  who,  while  despis 
ing,  has  played  the  whole  game  of  democracy, 
what  better  is  to  be  looked  for?  'Tis  not  to  a 
chapter  of  accidents  that  we  ought  to  trust  the 
Government  peace  and  happiness  of  our  coun 
try.  'Tis  enough  for  us  to  know  that  Mr.  Burr 
is  one  of  the  most  unprincipled  men  in  the  U. 
States  in  order  to  determine  us  to  decline  be 
ing  responsible  for  the  precarious  issues  of  his 
calculations  of  interest. 

<  <  Very  different  ought  to  be  our  plans.  Under 
the  uncertainty  of  the  event  we  ought  to  seek 
to  obtain  from  Mr.  Jefferson  these  assurances : 
1.  That  the  present  Fiscal  system  will  be  main 
tained.  2.  That  the  present  neutral  plan  will 
be  adhered  to.  3.  That  the  Navy  will  be  pre 
served  and  gradually  increased.  4.  That  Fed- 


A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDEB    HAMILTON  35 

eralists  now  in  office  not  being  Heads  of  the 
great  departments  will  be  retained.  As  to  the 
heads  of  Departments  and  other  matters  he 
ought  to  be  free. 

"You  can  not  in  my  opinion  render  a  greater 
service  to  your  country  than  by  exerting  your 
influence  to  counter-act  the  impolitic  and  impure 
idea  of  raising  Mr.  Burr  to  the  Chief  Magis 
tracy. 

"Adieu  my  dear  sir,      Yrs.  with 

' '  sincere  affecn  &  regard 

"A  Hamilton 
"J.  Rutlege,Esqr." 

[The  enclosure  also  in  Hamilton's  handwriting.] 

1 1  Confidential. 

"A  Burr 

' '  1.  He  is  in  every  sense  a  profligate,  *  a 
voluptuary  in  the  extreme,  with  uncommon  hab 
its  of  expense,  in  his  profession  extortionate  to 
a  proverb,  suspected  on  strong  grounds  of  hav 
ing  corruptly  served  the  views  of  the  Holland 
Company  in  the  capacity  of  a  member  of  our 
legislature;*  and  understood  to  have  been 
guilty  of  several  breaches  of  probity  in  his  pe- 

*He  co-operated  in  obtaining  a  law  to  permit  aliens  to  hold 
and  occupy  lands. 


36  A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON 

cuniary  transactions.  His  very  friends  do  not 
insist  upon  his  integrity. 

"2.  He  is  without  doubt  insolvent  for  a  large 
deficit.  All  his  visible  property  is  deeply  mort 
gaged  and  he  is  known  to  owe  other  large  debts 
for  which  there  is  no  specific  security.  Of  the 
number  of  these  is  a  judgment  in  favour  of  Mr. 
Angerstien  for  a  sum  which  with  interest 
amounts  to  about  80,000  dollars. 

"3.  The  fair  emoluments  of  any  station  un 
der  our  government  will  not  equal  his  expenses 
in  that  station ;  still  less  will  they  suffice  to  ex 
tricate  him  from  his  embarrassments.  He  must 
therefore  from  the  necessity  of  his  situation 
have  recourse  to  unworthy  expedients.  These 
may  be  a  bargain  and  sale  with  some  foreign 
power  or  combination  with  public  agents  in  pro 
jects  of  gain  by  means  of  the  public  monies; 
perhaps  and  probably  to  enlarge  the  sphere— 
a  war. 

"4.  He  has  no  pretensions  to  the  station 
from  services.  He  acted  in  different  capacities 
in  the  last  war  finally  with  the  rank  of  Lt.  Col. 
in  a  regiment  and  gave  indications  of  being  a 
good  officer ;  but  without  having  had  the  oppor 
tunity  of  performing  any  distinguished  action. 
At  a  critical  period  of  the  war,  he  resigned  his 


A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDEB    HAMILTON  37 

commission,  assigning  for  cause  ill  health  and 
went  to  repose  at  Paramus  in  the  State  of  New 
Jersey.  If  his  health  was  bad,  he  might  without 
difficulty  have  obtained  a  furlough  and  was  not 
obliged  to  resign.  He  was  afterwards  seen  in  his 
usual  health.  The  circumstances  excited  much 
jealousy  of  his  motives.  In  civil  life  he  has 
never  projected  nor  aided  in  producing  a  single 
measure  of  important  public  utility. 

"5.  He  has  constantly  sided  with  the  party 
hostile  to  Federal  measures  before  and  since 
the  present  constitution  of  the  IT.  States.  In 
opposing  the  adoption^ jof  this  Constitution  he 
was  engaged  covertly  and  insidiously;  because 
as  he  said  at  the  time  'it  was  too  strong  and  too 
weak'  and  he  has  been  uniformly  the  opposer 
of  the  Federal  Administration. 

"6.  No  mortal  man  can  tell  what  his  political 
principles  are.  He  has  talked  all  around  the 
compass.  At  times  he  has  dealt  in  all  the  jargon 
of  Jacobinism ;  at  other  times  he  has  proclaimed 
decidedly  the  total  insufficiency  of  the  Federal 
Government  and  the  necessity  of  changes  to  one 
far  more  energetic.  The  truth  seems  to  be  that 
he  has  no  plan  but  that  of  getting  power  by  any 
means  and  keeping  it  by  all  means.  It  is  prob 
able  that  if  he  has  any  theory  tis  that  of  a  simple 


38  A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON 

despotism.  He  has  intimated  that  he  thinks 
the  present  French  Constitution  not  a  bad  one. 

"7.  He  is  of  a  temper  bold  enough  to  think 
no  enterprise  too  hazardous  and  sanguine 
enough  to  think  none  too  difficult.  He  has  cen 
sured  the  leaders  of  the  Federal  party  as  want 
ing  in  vigour  and  enterprise,  for  not  having  es 
tablished  a  strong  government  when  they  were 
in  possession  of  the  power  and  influence. 

"8.  Discerning  men  of  all  parties  agree  in 
ascribing  to  him  an  irregular  and  inordinate 
ambition.  Like  Catiline  he  is  indefatigable  in 
courting  the  young  and  the  profligate.  He 
knows  well  the  weak  sides  of  human  nature  and 
takes  care  to  play  in  with  the  passions  of  all 
with  whom  he  has  intercourse.  By  natural  dis 
position,  the  haughtiest  of  men,  he  is  at  the  same 
time  the  most  creeping  to  answer  his  purposes. 
Cold  and  collected  by  nature  and  habit  he  never 
loses  sight  of  his  object  and  scruples  no  means 
of  accomplishing  it.  He  is  artful  and  intriguing 
to  an  inconceivable  degree.  In  short  all  his  con 
duct  indicates  that  he  has  in  view  nothing  less 
than  the  establishment  of  supreme  power  in 
his  own  person.  Of  this  nothing  can  be  a  surer 
index  than  having  in  fact  high-toned  notions  of 
government,  he  has  nevertheless  constantly  op- 


A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON  39 

posed  the  Federal  and  courted  the  popular 
party.  As  he  never  can  effect  his  wish  by  the  aid 
of  good  men,  he  will  court  and  employ  able  and 
daring  scoundrels  of  every  party  and  by  avail 
ing  himself  of  their  assistance  and  of  all  the  bad 
passions  of  the  society,  he  will  in  all  likelihood 
attempt  an  usurpation. 

"8  [sic].  Within  the  last  three  weeks  at  his 
own  table  he  drank  these  toasts  successively: 
1.  The  French  Republic.  2.  The  commission 
ers  who  negotiated  the  convention.  3.  Buona 
parte.  4.  LaFayette :  and  he  countenanced  and 
seconded  the  positions  openly  advanced  by  one 
of  his  guests  that  it  was  the  interest  of  this  coun 
try  to  leave  it  free  to  the  Belligerent  powers  to 
sell  their  prizes  in  our  ports  and  to  build  and 
equip  ships  for  their  respective  uses ;  a  doctrine 
which  evidently  aims  at  turning  all  the  naval 
resources  of  the  U.  States  into  the  channel  of 
France;  and  which  by  making  these  states  the 
most  pernicious  enemy  of  Gr.  Britain  would  com 
pel  her  to  go  to  war  with  us. 

"9.  Though  possessing  infinite  art,  cunning 
and  address,  he  is  yet  to  give  proofs  of  great 
or  solid  abilities.  It  is  certain  that  at  the  bar 
he  is  more  remarkable  for  ingenuity  and  dexter 
ity  than  for  sound  judgment  or  good  logic. 


40  A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON 

From  the  character  of  his  understanding  and 
heart  it  is  likely  that  any  innovations  which  he 
may  effect  win  be  such  as  to  serve  the  turn  of  his 
own  power,  not  such  as  will  issue  in  establish 
ments  favourable  to  the  permanent  security  and 
prosperity  of  the  Nation — founded  upon  the 
principles  of  a  strong,  free  and  regular  Govern 
ment." 

This  letter  is  a  brief  chronicle  and  abstract 
of  Alexander  Hamilton's  character  and  na 
ture,  of  his  acts  and  their  motives,  of  his  life 
and  the  means  by  which  he  undertook  to  gain 
his  ends.  Of  the  adroitness  with  which  he  could 
turn  his  own  intentional  misconstruction  into  an 
apparent  fact,  we  take  one  instance  which  is  all 
sufficient,  because  facts  are  stronger,  though 
not  so  polished,  than  the  figures  of  rhetoric. 
In  subsection  No.  1,  Hamilton  says:  "* 
suspected  on  strong  grounds  of  having  corruptly 
served  the  views  of  the  Holland  Company  in  the 
capacity  of  a  member  of  our  legislature. "  In 
explanation  of  this  act  of  Burr  I  quote  again  the 
foot-note  appended  by  the  editor  of  The  Cen 
tury  Magazine:  "He  co-operated  in  obtaining  a 
law  to  permit  aliens  to  hold  and  convey  lands. ' ' 
In  other  words,  Burr  tried  by  legislation  to  offer 


A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON  41 

inducements  to  the  very  best  men  to  come  and 
settle  in  this  country.  The  law  was  wise,  patri 
otic  in  its  purpose,  and  very  judicious  in  its 
means. 

A  man  so  cowardly  as  to  write  such  a  confi 
dential  letter  could  conceive  and  undertake  any 
enterprise  save  one  that  would  compel  him  to 
lead  an  honest  life  or  oblige  him  to  te  1  the 
truth.  The  letter  itself  furnishes  indispi  table 
evidence — it  is  self-evident — that  its  sour  ;e^its 
cause,  is  envy.  And  all  men  know  how-^uxu  ^  how 
quickly,  how  permanently,  envy  curora  /into 
hate.  Envy  is  the  father  of  that  form  of  cow 
ardice  which  often  shows  itself  with  courageous 
freedom  in  words  confidentially  spoken. 

To  attempt  a  critical  analysis  of  all  the  va 
rious  statements  in  this  remarkable  letter, — all 
the  more  remarkable  because  written  to  a  justice 
of  the  United  States  Supreme  Court, — or  to  dis 
cuss  in  its  fullness  the  principle  of  morals  in 
volved  in  it,  would  be  simply  to  lay  bare  the  pov 
erty  of  the  English  language  to  express  one's 
thoughts  when  one's  moral  nature  is  assailed 
and  shocked  by  statements  made  in  a  way  so 
infamous,  so  cowardly.  What  purpose  could 
Hamilton  effect,  what  advantage  could  he  se 
cure,  what  injury  could  he  do  to  Burr,  by  a  con- 


42  A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON 

fidential  letter  to  a  federal  judge  ?  Did  he  expect 
Judge  But!  edge  to  yield  to  the  temptation  to 
give  it  publicity,  that  Hamilton  himself  might 
escape  its  responsibility  by  asserting  that  the 
judge  had  betrayed  a  confidence!  He  ought  to 
have  remembered  that  there  was  not  one  drop 
of  blood  such  as  his  in  Judge  Butledge's  veins. 

Take  each  statement  as  it  is  written.  Each  is 
stated,  and  is  intended  to  be  received,  as  a  fact. 
Nothing  may  be  added  to  a  fact.  The  orna- 
violent  language.  To  the  eighth  page  of  the 
beauty,  but  seldom  increases  the  power,  of  a 
statement. 

In  his  vindication  Hamilton  poured  out  upon 
Beynolds  and  two  other  men,  Clingman  and 
Fraunces,  the  vials  of  his  wrath,  expressed  in 
violent  language.  To  the  eighth  page  of  the 
vindication  he  appended  this  footnote: 

"Would  it  be  believed  after  all  this,  that  Mr. 
Jefferson,  Vice-President  of  the  United  States, 
would  write  to  this  Fraunces  friendly  letters! 
Yet  such  is  the  fact  as  will  be  seen  in  the  Ap 
pendix,  Nos.  XLIV  and  XLV." 

Would  it  have  been  believed  that  Alexander 
Hamilton,  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  would 
have  vindicated  his  betrayal  of  his  honor  and 


A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON  43 

his  treachery  to  his  wife  by  his  adulterous  amour 
with  Mrs.  Beynolds?  "Yet  such  is  the  fact  as 
will  be  seen, ' '  in  this  vindication. 

Why  go  out  of  the  line  of  his  argument,  evas 
ive  and  inconclusive  as  it  is,  to  speak  in  this 
way  of  Mr.  Jefferson !  What  had  he  to  do  with 
Hamilton's  connection  with  Mrs.  Keynolds,  or 
with  her  husband,  or  with  Clingman,  or  with 
Hamilton's  troubles  with  Fraunces?  With  the 
scent  and  the  nature  of  a  bloodhound  Hamilton 
pursued  the  man  who  did  his  own  thinking  and 
had  the  courage  to  reach  a  conclusion  different 
from  his.  When  his  thoughts  became  crystal 
lized  into  acts  he  discharged  his  calumnies  and 
slanders  in  confidential  words,  spoken  or  writ 
ten,  with  the  accuracy  and  directness  of  riflemen 
shooting  at  a  target. 

The  act  of  writing  letters  to  Fraunces  by  Jef 
ferson  was  dishonorable  because  Jefferson  was 
Vice-President  of  the  United  States!  Hamil 
ton's  treachery  to  his  amiable  and  loving  wife 
was  a  less  "heinous  offence"  in  his  eyes  than  a 
speculative  venture  in  Treasury  warrants,  and 
his  adulterous  amour  with  Mrs.  Eeynolds  was 
"only  an  indecorum"  because  Alexander  Ham 
ilton  was  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  of  the 
United  States. 

Consider  the  noble  sentiments  expressed  in 


44  A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON 

the  preface  to  his  vindication  and  his  terrible 
and  well-deserved  strictures  upon  the  Jacobin 
Scandal-Club,  then  consider  the  statements  in 
his  confidential  letter  to  Judge  Eutledge,  his 
motives,  his  object!  What  can  be,  what  will 
be,  the  judgment  of  every  honest  and  impartial 
man  in  his  estimate  of  Hamilton's  moral  nature, 
as  a  man,  as  a  gentleman,  and  as  a  statesman? 
In  what  literature  of  any  civilized  country  can 
another  production  be  found  to  equal  this  vindi 
cation — reflecting  as  it  does  the  baseness  of  its 
author !  How  could  any  man  have  written  such 
a  letter,  then  assert  a  right  to  be  admitted  to  the 
society  of  gentlemen  ?  Only  a  coward  could  have 
written  it.  In  using  the  word  "  coward  "  in  this 
connection  I  leave  out  of  all  consideration  the 
courage  that  is  in  nearly  all  men,  which  is  pro 
duced  by  the  influence  of  public  opinion  upon 
their  minds,  their  lives,  their  conduct,  and  their 
characters.  In  this  letter  to  Judge  Eutledge 
Hamilton  describes  his  true  character.  No  one 
may  misread  it.  As  shown  by  it,  his  baseness, 
his  depravity,  his  cowardice,  is  without  a  par 
allel  in  the  annals  of  any  country,  ancient  or 
modern. 


CHAPTER  III 

I  do  not  purpose  to  make  any  defense  of 
Aaron  Burr  nor  attempt  a  refutation  of  the 
charges  that  were  brought  against  him,  mali 
cious,  malignant,  and  malevolent  as  they  were. 
Alexander  Hamilton  himself  must  have  known 
them  to  be  untrue.  None  of  Burr's  enemies  has 
yet  asserted,  nor  even  hinted,  that  he  was  ever 
in  any  way  disloyal  to  his  wife  during  her  life 
time.  Nor  in  all  my  reading,  extensive  and  im 
partial  as  it  has  been,  have  I  discovered  any  con 
fidential  letters  written  by  him  solely  to  indulge 
and  gratify  that  malignant  hate  that  is  bred  in 
the  womb  of  Envy,  and  that  may  be  bred  no 
where  else. 

i^atruetest  of^character^  home 
m?mTHxpsL,£be  f  P s 

To  the  impartial  mind  the  feeling  involun 
tarily  comes  up  that,  succumbing  to  Alexander 
Hamilton's  magnetism  of  character  and  to  his 
fascinating  manners,  Mrs.  Reynolds  seduced 
herself  while  Hamilton  yielded  the  needed  con 
solations  due  to  her  in  her  unfortunate  condi 
tion.  His  conduct  consequently  was  only  "an 
indecorum."  That  it  may  be  shown  that  this 

45 


46  A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON 

opinion  is  not  unjust  to  him,  that  it  is  not  based 
on  a  desire  to  deal  unfairly,  nor  to  put  a  forced 
construction  upon  his  statements,  I  quote  from 
his  vindication  that  I  may  prove  the  truth  of 
this  judgment  upon  his  conduct : 

Page  20 :  "  All  the  appearances  of  violent  at 
tachment,  and  of  agonizing  distress  at  the  idea 
of  a  relinquishment,  were  played  off  with  a  most 
imposing  art.  This,  though  it  did  not  make  me 
entirely  the  dupe  of  the  plot,  yet  kept  me  in  a 
state  of  irresolution.  My  sensibility,  perhaps 
my  vanity,  admitted  the  possibility  of  a  real 
fondness ;  and  led  me  to  adopt  the  plan  of  a  grad 
ual  discontinuance  rather  than  of  a  sudden  in 
terruption,  as  least  calculated  to  give  pain,  if  a 
real  partiality  existed.  *  *  * 

"Mrs.  Keynolds,  on  the  other  hand,  employed 
every  effort  to  keep  up  my  attention  and  visits." 

Page  31 :  "The  variety  of  shapes  which  this 
woman  could  assume  was  endless." 

Then,  immediately  following,  he  gives  the 
points  and  statements  between  her  and  a  gentle 
man  whose  name  he  is  not  at  liberty  to  give  to 
the  public.  "His  name  would  evince  that  he  is 
an  impartial  witness,"  he  says.  "And  though 


A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON  47 

I  am  not  permitted  to  make  a  public  use  of  it, 
I  am  permitted  to  refer  any  gentleman  to  the 
perusal  of  his  letter  in  the  hands  of  William 
Bingham,  Esquire." 


rrhi 


ds  statement  is  an  illustration  of  a  distinc 
tion  without  a  difference.  Hamilton  could  not 
make  a  name  known  to  the  public,  but  his  friend, 
William  Bingham,  Esquire,  is  permitted  to  do  it 
for  him,  in  his  name.  These  extracts  refer  to 
the  condition  of  his  connection  with  this  woman 
long  after  he  had,  according  to  his  vindication, 
discovered  that  his  intrigue  with  her  was  well 
known  to  her  husband,  and  after  Clingman  was 
a  particeps  criminis  in  the  whole  affair. 

Did  any  other  man  of  such  acknowledged  in 
fluence  in  public  life,  and  of  such  high  recognized 
position  in  genteel  society,  with  wife  and  chil 
dren,  ever  before  or  since  confess  to  the  public 
in  print  such  weakness  of  character,  such  vacilla 
tion  of  judgment,  and  such  puerile  inability  to 
show  any  manhood,  any  self-respect,  or  any 
courage,  physical,  moral,  or  mental!  Indeed 
has  he  drawn  his  own  picture,  painted  in  fade 
less  colors. 

A  careful  study  of  his  vindication  fails  to 
disclose  a  single  statement  in  it,  in  positive 


48  A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON 

terms,  that  lie  did  not  speculate  in  government 
warrants.  He  makes  an  elaborate  argument 
to  disprove  his  guilt,  but  nowhere  asserts  in 
positive  words  that  he  engaged  in  no  specula 
tive  venture.  In  his  argument  he  makes  these 
points :  First,  that  Eeynolds  was  a  base  rascal, 
an  obscure,  an  unimportant,  and  a  profligate 
man ;  Second,  that  he  would  have  selected  as  his 
intermediate  agent  one  more  worthy  of  his  con 
fidence;  Third,  page  11,  "It  is  very  extraor 
dinary,  if  the  head  of  the  money  department  of 
a  country,  being  unprincipled  enough  to  sacrifice 
his  trust  and  his  integrity,  could  not  have  con 
trived  objects  of  profit  sufficiently  large  to  have 
engaged  the  co-operation  of  men  of  far  greater 
importance  than  Eeynolds,  and  with  whom  there 
could  have  been  due  safety,  and  should  have 
been  drawn  to  the  necessity  of  unkennelling  such 
a  reptile  to  be  the  instrument  of  his  cupidity. " 
It  was  not  possible,  unless  the  men  of  "far 
greater  importance  than  Eeynolds "  had  been 
just  as  dishonest  and  serviceable  as  the  reptile 
he  unkenneled,  to  be  the  instrument  of  his  cu 
pidity.  Even  in  this  day  of  universal  corrup 
tion,  state  and  federal,  one  may  not  find  such 
men  of ' '  far  greater  importance  than  Eeynolds ' ' 
to  do  such  work — such  disreputable  jobbery. 


A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDEB    HAMILTON  49 

As  an  example  of  Hamilton's  denial  of  the 
grave  charge  of  speculation,  I  quote  an  extract 
referring  to  the  interview  had  with  him  on  this 
subject  by  Venable,  Muhlenberg,  and  Monroe. 

Page  28:  "I  deny  absolutely,  as  alleged  by 
the  editor  of  the  publication  in  question,  that  I 
intreated  a  suspension  of  the  communication  to 
the  President,  or  that  from  the  beginning  to  the 
end  of  the  inquiry,  I  asked  any  favour  or  indul 
gence  whatever,  and  that  I  discovered  any  symp 
toms  different  from  that  of  a  proud  conscious 
ness  of  innocence/' 

This  statement  is  simply  an  argument — not 
a  statement  of  a  fact.  Such  statements  can  be, 
and  are,  made  by  criminals  when  discussing  the 
charges  against  them  when  they  desire  to  con 
ceal  their  guilt  from  the  attorney  employed  to 
defend  them.  Every  lawyer  that  defends  crimi 
nals  is  acquainted  with  such  subterfuges,  and 
such  conduct  is  invariably  considered  as  evi 
dence  of  guilt,  unless  coupled  with  indisputable 
proof  of  innocence  or  positive  disproof  of  the 
charge  based  on  the  assertion  that  the  accused 
did  not  commit  the  act  charged,  and  is  treated 
as  such. 


50  A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON 

I  turn  to  Hamilton's  interview  with  Venable, 
Monroe,  and  Muhlenberg.  This  interview  re 
lates  to  the  charges  against  Alexander  Hamil 
ton,  the  talk  of  all  circles,  social  and  political,  of 
that  time. 

Page  27 :  "  Mr.  Mnhlenberg  and  Mr.  Venable, 
in  particular,  manifested  a  degree  of  sensibility 
on  the  occasion.  Mr.  Monroe  was  more  cold  but 
entirely  explicit." 

But  subsequently  it  seems  that  Mr.  Monroe 
received  other  information  that  possibly  justi 
fied  him  in  thinking  that  Hamilton  was  not  en 
tirely  innocent.  It  does  not  appear  from  the 
vindication  that  in  this  interview  Hamilton 
made  to  these  gentlemen  a  positive  assertion 
that  he  had  not  engaged  in  speculations  in  gov 
ernment  warrants.  He  simply  argues  the  ques 
tion  of  his  innocence,  as  he  does  all  through  the 
devious  course  of  his  argument. 

Page  27 :  "I  insisted  upon  going  through  the 
whole,  and  did  so.  The  result  was  a  full  and  un 
equivocal  acknowledgment  on  the  part  of  the 
three  gentlemen  of  perfect  satisfaction  with  the 
explanation  and  expressions  of  regret  at  the 


A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON  51 

trouble  and  embarrassment  which  had  been  oc 
casioned  to  me." 

Pages  28,  29 :  "Thus  the  affair  remained  till 
the  pamphlets  No.  V  and  VI  of  the  History  of 
the  United  States  for  1796  appeared,  with  the 
exception  of  some  dark  whispers  which  were 
communicated  to  me  by  a  friend  in  Virginia,  and 
to  which  I  replied  by  a  statement  of  what  had 
passed. 

"When  I  saw  No.  V  though  it  was  evidence 
of  a  base  infidelity  somewhere,  yet  firmly  be 
lieving  that  nothing  more  than  a  want  of  due 
care  was  chargeable  upon  either  of  the  three 
gentlemen  who  had  made  the  inquiry,  I  imme 
diately  wrote  to  each  of  them  a  letter  of  which 
No.  XXV  is  a  copy,  in  full  confidence  that  their 
answer  would  put  the  whole  business  at  rest. 
I  ventured  to  believe,  from  the  appearances  on 
their  part  at  closing  our  former  interview  on 
the  subject,  that  their  answers  would  have  been 
both  cordial  and  explicit. 

"I  acknowledge  that  I  was  astonished  when 
I  came  to  read  in  the  pamphlet  No.  VI  the  con 
clusion  of  document  No.  V,  containing  the  equiv 
ocal  phrase,  lWe  left  him  under  an  impression 
our  suspicions  were  removed/  which  seemed  to 
imply  that  this  had  been  a  mere  piece  of  manage- 


52  A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON 

ment,  and  that  the  impression  given  me  had  not 
been  reciprocal.  The  appearance  of  duplicity 
incensed  me ;  but  resolving  to  proceed  with  cau 
tion  and  moderation,  I  thought  the  first  proper 
step  was  to  inquire  of  the  gentlemen  whether 
the  paper  was  genuine.  A  letter  was  written 
for  this  purpose  a  copy  of  which  I  have  mis 
laid.  " 

With  his  character  involved,  he  mislaid  this 
letter,  or  its  copy.  Marvelous  negligence  in  a. 
gentleman  who  was  so  sensitive  about  his  honor 
that  he  considered  a  speculation  in  Treasury 
warrants  a  more  heinous  offense  than  an  adul 
terous  connection  with  a  woman  that  he  took 
into  his  home  for  illegal  enjoyment,  involving 
treachery  to  his  wife  and  a  betrayal  of  his  mar 
riage  vow!  One  was  only  an  indecorum,  while 
the  other  a  crime. 

Before  making  any  extracts  from  the  docu 
ments  referred  to  and  from  the  letters  which 
passed  between  these  gentlemen,  I  shall  make 
some  quotations  from  the  vindication  imme 
diately  following  his  references : 

Page  33 :  "But  it  is  observed  that  the  dread 
of  the  disclosure  of  an  enormous  connection  was 


A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDEB    HAMILTON  53 

not  a  sufficient  cause  for  my  humility,  and  that 
1  had  nothing  to  lose  as  to  my  reputation  for 
chastity  concerning  which  the  world  had  fixed 
a  previous  opinion. 

i  i  I  shall  not  enter  into  the  question  what  was 
the  previous  opinion  entertained  of  me  in  this 
particular — nor  how  well  founded,  if  it  was  in 
deed  such  as  it  is  represented  to  have  been.  It 
is  sufficient  to  say  that  there  is  a  wide  difference 
between  vague  rumours  and  suspicions  and  the 
evidence  of  a  positive  fact — no  man  not  indeli 
cately  unprincipled,  with  the  state  of  manners 
in  this  country,  would  be  willing  to  have  a  con 
jugal  infidelity  fixed  upon  him  with  positive  cer 
tainty — he  would  know  that  it  would  justly  in 
jure  him  with  a  considerable  and  respectable 
portion  of  the  society — and  especially  no  man, 
tender  of  the  happiness  of  an  excellent  wife 
could  without  extreme  pain  look  forward  to  the 
affliction  which  she  might  endure  from  the  dis 
closure,  especially  a  public  disclosure,  of  the 
fact.  Those  best  acquainted  with  the  interior 
of  my  domestic  life  will  best  appreciate  the  force 
of  such  a  consideration  upon  me. ' ' 

This  last  sentence  contains  a  very  tactful  and 
delicate  reference  to  those  rapturous  moments 


54  A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON 

of  ecstatic  happiness  when  he  and  Mrs.  Rey- 
nolds,  in  the  absence  of  his  wife,  made  Mrs. 
Hamilton's  home  the  temporary  dwelling  of  a 
woman  of  whose  charms  and  fascinations  the 
gentleman  desired  a  monopoly. 

Why  is  it  that  his  most  far-fetched  and  un 
necessary  allusion  to  Mrs.  Reynolds  always 
brings  a  reference  of  his  excellent  wife?  Did 
each  woman  have  her  several  and  distinct  ex 
cellencies  of  character  and  conduct,  that  to  men 
tion  one  always  should  bring  to  his  mind  the 
other? 

If  so  "  tender  of  the  happiness  of  an  excellent 
wife"  and  conscious  of  the  extreme  pain  a  pub 
lic  disclosure  of  his  debauchery  would  bring  to 
her  "throbbing  and  palpitating  bosom,"  why 
make  it!  What  light  did  it  throw  on  his  inno 
cence  in  these  speculations?  Did  his  publicly 
acknowledged  guilt  in  the  one  case  prove  his 
innocence  in  the  other?  His  connection  with 
Mrs.  Reynolds,  disreputable  and  debauched  as 
he  was,  did  not  disprove  his  speculative  venture 
with  Mr.  Reynolds,  dishonorable  as  it  was.  He 
admitted  the  former — put  in  into  print  and  pub 
lished  it  to  the  world.  He  published  an  argu 
ment  to  prove  his  innocence;  but  it  is  an  argu 
ment,  and  nothing  more. 


A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON  55 

Page  33 :  "The  truth  was,  that  in  both  rela 
tions  and  especially  the  last,  I  dreaded  ex 
tremely  a  disclosure — and  was  willing  to  make 
large  sacrifices  to  avoid  it." 

Page  34:  "  Candid  men  will  derive  strong 
evidence  of  my  innocence  and  delicacy  from  the 
reflection,  that  under  circumstances  so  peculiar, 
the  culprits  were  compelled  to  give  a  real  and 
substantial  equivalent  for  the  relief  which  they 
obtained  from  a  department  over  ivhich  I  pre 
sided." 

What  was  the  real  and  substantial  equivalent 
which  they  gave  for  the  relief  obtained  from 
Hamilton's  department?  If  true  it  be  that  his 
connection  with  Mrs.  Reynolds  was  in  a  great 
measure  due  to  the  connivance  of  her  husband, 
this  amour  sinks  into  an  ordinary  commercial 
transaction,  stale,  flat,  and  unprofitable  in  all 
its  uses.  He  simply  strikes  a  balance  between 
his  speculative  losses  with  the  husband  and  the 
rapturous  moments  of  enjoyments  of  the  wife. 

Pages  35,  36:  "Relative  character  and  the 
written  documents  must  still  determine.  These 
could  decide  without  it,  and  they  were  relied 
upon.  But  could  it  be  expected,  that  I  should 


56  A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDEB    HAMILTON 

so  debase  myself  as  to  think  it  necessary  to  my 
vindication  to  be  confronted  with  a  person  such 
as  Beynolds?  Could  I  have  borne  to  suffer  my 
veracity  to  be  exposed  to  the  humiliating  com 
petition  ?" 

Hamilton  was  utterly  unconscious  that  his 
very  statements  about  his  intimate  relations 
with  Mrs.  Eeynolds  at  his  own  home  and  else 
where,  to  be  found  in  his  vindication,  destroy 
all  the  value  and  influence  of  "  relative  char 
acter.  ' '  He  had  already  debased  himself  by  his 
business  transactions  with  her  husband.  It  was 
no  longer  a  question  of  his  veracity.  His  inter 
view  with  the  gentlemen  that  are  brought  into 
this  vindication  disclosed  that  there  was  no 
question  of  his  veracity.  The  issue  was  his  per 
sonal  and  official  integrity.  Hamilton  has  not 
in  this  vindication  vindicated  either — much  less 
both. 

In  his  vindication  he  alludes  to  his  letter  No. 
XXV,  dated  July  5,  1797,  from  which  I  quote : 

"They  [certain  attacks  on  Mr.  Monroe]  are 
ungrateful,  because  he  displayed  on  an  occasion, 
that  will  be  mentioned  immediately,  the  greatest 
lenity  to  Mr.  Alexander  Hamilton,  the  prime 


A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDEK    HAMILTON  57 

mover  of  the  Federal  party.  The  pe 

culiar  nature  of  this  transaction  renders  it  im 
possible  that  you  should  not  recollect  it  in  all 
parts  and  that  your  own  declaration  to  me  at 
the  time  contradicts  absolutely  the  construc 
tion  which  the  editor  of  the  pamphlet  puts  upon 
the  affair." 

Was  Mr.  Monroe  the  editor  of  the  pamphlet0/ 
If  he  was  not,  how  could  he  be  held  responsible 
for  his  construction  of  it!  He  was  seeking  an 
explanation.  The  letter  continues : 

"And  I  shall  rely  upon  your  delicacy  that  the 
manner  of  doing  it  will  be  such  that  one  gentle 
man  has  a  right  to  expect  from  another — espe 
cially  as  you  must  be  sensible  that  the  present 
appearance  of  the  papers  is  contrary  to  the 
course  which  was  understood  between  us  to  be 
proper  and  includes  a  dishonourable  infidelity 
somewhere — I  am  far  from  attributing  it  to 
either  of  the  three  gentlemen ;  yet  the  suspicion 
naturally  falls  on  some  agent  made  use  of  by 
them." 

Hamilton  is  far  from  attributing  it  to  any  of 
the  three.  Yet  he  suspects  each,  and  all  three 


58  A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAklLTON 

made  use  of  an  agent.  Another  of  his  distinc 
tions  without  a  difference.  Upon  the  ground 
of  a  mere  suspicion  of  conduct,  which  he  dis 
claims  attributing  to  any  of  them,  Hamilton  de 
mands  an  explanatory  statement  from  Mr.  Mon 
roe  of  conduct  which  he,  Hamilton,  does  not 
attribute  to  Monroe.  The  question  inevitably 
follows,  Upon  what  ground  could  Hamilton, 
claiming  to  be  a  gentleman,  make  this  demand 
of  Mr.  Monroe?  The  real  object  of  this  letter 
will  be  shown  in  a  short  time.  I  quote  from  Mr. 
Muhlenberg's  reply: 

Page  xxxvii :  "  At  the  same  time  permit  me  to 
remind  you  of  your  declaration  also  made  in 
the  presence  of  Mr.  Wolcott  that  the  infor 
mation  and  letters  in  our  possession  justified 
the  suspicions  we  entertained  before  your  ex 
planation  took  place,  and  that  our  conduct  to 
wards  you  in  this  business  was  satisfactory. 
Having  no  share  or  agency  whatever  in  the  pub 
lication  or  comments  you  are  pleased  to  cite  I 
must  beg  to  be  excused  from  making  any  re 
marks  thereon. " 

I  quote  from  Mr.  Venable's  letter: 


A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON  59 

Page  xxxviii:  "I  have  endeavoured  to  recol 
lect  what  passed  at  the  close  of  the  interview 
which  took  place  with  respect  to  this  transac 
tion  ;  it  was  said  I  believe  by  us  in  general  terms 
that  we  were  satisfied  with  the  explanation  that 
had  been  given,  that  we  regretted  the  necessity 
that  we  had  been  subjected  to  in  being  obliged  to 
make  the  inquiry,  as  well  as  the  trouble  and 
anxiety  it  had  occasioned  you,  and  on  your  part 
you  admitted  in  general  terms  that  the  business 
as  presented  to  us  bore  such  a  doubtful  aspect 
as  to  justify  the  inquiry,  and  that  the  manner 
had  been  satisfactory  to  you. 

"I  have  now  to  express  my  surprise  at  the 
contents  of  a  letter  published  yesterday  in  Fen- 
no's  paper,  in  which  you  endeavour  to  impute 
to  party  motives  the  part  which  I  have  had  in 
this  business  and  endeavour  to  connect  me  with 
the  releasement  of  persons,  committed  as  you 
say  for  heinous  crimes." 

Then,  giving  the  real  facts  as  to  Reynolds  and 
Clingman,  which  are  in  substance  the  same  as 
those  stated  by  Hamilton  himself,  Mr.  Venable 
continues : 

"If  you  will  take  the  trouble  to  examine  the 


60  A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON 

transaction  you  will  find  this  statement  correct, 
and  you  cannot  be  insensible  of  the  injury  you 
do  me  when  you  say,  this  was  an  attempt  to  re 
lease  themselves  from  imprisonment  by  favour 
of  party  spirit,  and  that  I  was  one  of  the  per 
sons  resorted  to  on  that  ground.  I  appeal  to 
your  candour,  and  ask  you  if  any  part  of  my 
conduct  in  this  whole  business  has  justified  such 
an  imputation.'' 

Pages  xl  and  xli  (from  a  joint  letter  by  Muh- 
lenberg  and  Monroe):  "We  think  proper  to 
observe  that  as  we  had  no  agency  in  or  knowl 
edge  of  the  publication  of  these  papers  till  they 
appeared,  so  of  course  we  could  have  none  in  the 
comments  that  were  made  on  them. 

[Then,  referring  to  the  object  and  demand 
of  information,  they  answer:] 

and  to  which  we  readily  reply, 
that  the  impression  which  we  left  on  your  mind 
as  stated  in  that  number,  was  that  which  rested 
on  our  own,  and  which  was  that  the  explanation 
of  the  nature  of  your  connection  with  Reynolds 
which  you  then  gave  removed  the  suspicions  we 
had  before  entertained  of  your  being  connected 
with  him  in  speculation.  Had  not  this  been  the 
case  we  should  certainly  not  have  left  the  im 
pression  on  your  mind,  nor  should  we  have  de- 


A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON  61 

sisted  from  the  plan  we  had  contemplated  in  the 
commencement  of  the  inquiry,  of  laying  the 
papers  before  the  President  of  the  U.  States. " 

There  the  shoe  was  pinching.  Washington 
was  then  President,  to  whom  the  matters  of  that 
interview  were  not  communicated.  Hamilton 
resigned  his  secretaryship  the  last  of  January, 
1795, — his  conduct  was  a  prudent  forecast,  verg 
ing  on  the  certainty  of  a  prophetic  vision.  The 
vindication  was  not  published  until  1797.  There 
follows  an  important  statement  in  this  letter: 

"We  cannot  conclude  this  letter  without  ex 
pressing  our  surprise  at  the  contents  of  a  paper 
in  the  Gazette  of  the  United  States  of  the  8th 
instant,  which  states  that  the  proceedings  in 
the  inquiry  in  question  were  the  contrivance  of 
two  very  profligate  men  who  sought  to  obtain 
their  liberation  from  prison  by  the  favour  of 
party  spirit.  You  will  readily  recollect  that  one 
of  these  men,  Mr.  Clingman,  was  never  impris 
oned  for  any  crime  alleged  against  him  by  the 
department  of  the  Treasury,  and  that  the  other, 
Mr.  Eeynolds,  was  upon  the  point  of  being  re 
leased  and  was  actually  released  and  without 
our  solicitation  or  even  with,  by  virture  of  an 


62  A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDEB    HAMILTON 

agreement  made  with  him  by  that  department 
before  the  inquiry  began. " 

In  a  letter  from  Monroe  (page  xliv)  he  says 
it  was  impossible  to  trace  back  all  the  impres 
sions  on  his  mind  at  the  different  periods,  occu 
pied  as  he  was  with  other  concerns ;  ' '  but  I  well 
remember  that  on  entering  the  one  which  bears 
my  single  signature,  altho'  I  was  surprised  at 
the  communication  given,  yet  I  neither  meant  to 
give  or  imply  any  opinion  of  my  own  as  to  its 
contents.  I  simply  entered  the  communication 
as  I  received  it,  reserving  to  myself  the  liberty 
to  form  an  opinion  upon  it  at  such  future  time 
as  I  found  convenient,  paying  due  regard  to  all 
the  circumstances  connected  with  it. ' ' 

In  letter  No.  XXXVII  Hamilton  says  that 
Monroe 's  letter  was  unsatisfactory,  then  writes : 

"It  appears  to  me  liable  to  this  inference  that 
the  information  of  Clingman  had  revived  the 
suspicions  which  my  explanation  had  removed. 
This  would  include  the  very  derogatory  suspi 
cion,  that  I  had  concerted  with  Keynolds  not  only 
the  fabrication  of  all  the  letters  and  documents 
under  his  hand  but  also  the  forgery  of  the  let- 


I  <W>u  , 

MOOftA. 

A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDEB    HAMILTON  63 

ters  produced  as  those  of  Mrs.  Beynolds — since 
these  last  unequivocally  contradict  the  pretence 
communicated  by  Clingman.  I  therefore  re 
quest  you  to  say  whether  the  inference  be  in 
tended.  " 

Mr.  Monroe  replied  in  substance  just  what  he 
stated  in  his  letter  last  quoted. 

I  quote  from  Hamilton's  letter  in  answer: 

Page  xlv:  "In  my  last  letter  to  you  I  pro^ 
posed  a  simple  and  direct  question,  to  which  I 
had  hoped  a-n  answer  equally  simple  and  direct. " 
[After  discussing  Clingman,  he  concludes  in 
these  words:]  "To  have  given  or  intended  to 
give  the  least  sanction  or  credit  after  all  that 
was  known  to  you,  to  the  mere  assertion  of  either 
of  the  three  persons  Clingman,  Reynolds  or  his 
wife  would  have  betrayed  a  disposition  towards 
me  which  if  it  appeared  to  exist  would  merit 
epithets  the  severest  that  I  could  apply." 

To  which  Mr.  Monroe  replied,  in  part  as  fol 
lows: 

Page  xlvii:  "It  is  proper  to  observe  that  in 
the  explanation  you  gave,  you  admitted  all  the 


64  A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDEK    HAMILTON 

facts  upon  which  our  opinion  was  founded, 
but  yet  accounted  for  them,  and  for  your  con 
nection  with  Reynolds  upon  another  principle. 
>Tis  proper  also  to  observe  that  we  admitted 
your  explanation  upon  the  faith  of  your  own 
statement,  and  upon  the  documents  you  pre 
sented,  though  I  do  not  recollect  they  were 
proved  or  that  proof  was  required  of  them. 

1  i  You  will  remember  that  in  this  interview  in 
which  we  acknowledged  ourselves  satisfied  with 
the  explanation  you  gave,  we  did  not  bind  our 
selves  not  to  hear  further  information  on  the 
subject,  or  even  not  to  proceed  further  in  case 
we  found  it  our  duty  to  do  so." 

After  the  two  had  exchanged  other  letters  of 
similar  import,  Mr.  Monroe  wrote : 

Pages  Ivi  and  Ivii :  "I  have  stated  to  you  that 
I  had  no  wish  to  do  you  a  personal  injury. 
The  several  explanations  which  I  have  made 
accorded  with  truth  and  my  ideas  of  propriety. 
Therefore  I  need  not  repeat  them.  If  these  do 
not  yield  you  satisfaction,  I  can  give  no  other, 
unless  called  on  in  a  way  which  for  the  illustra 
tion  of  truth,  I  wish  to  avoid,  but  which  I  am 
ever  ready  to  meet.  This  is  what  I  meant  by 


k/1  K.  A 


A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON  65 

that  part  of  my  letter  which  you  say  you  do  not 
understand.  '  ' 

To  which  Hamilton  replied,  undertaking,  in  a 
circuitous  way,  to  blame  Monroe  with  the  pres 
ent  situation  of  the  affair.  Concluding,  he  says  : 

Page  Ivii:  "On  the  supposition  that  it  so  in 
tended,  I  have  authorized  Major  Jackson  to 
communicate  with  you  and  to  settle  time  and 
place.  '  ' 

In  reply  Monroe  said,  page  Ivii:  "I  do  not 
clearly  understand  the  import  of  yours  of  the 
4th  instant  and  therefore  desire  an  explana 
tion.  With  this  view  I  will  give  an  explanation 
of  mine  which  preceded.  '  ' 

Seeing  no  cause  why  he  should  send  a  chal 
lenge  to  Hamilton,  it  was  not  Monroe's  intention 
to  provoke  one  by  anything  in  his  letters.  He 
refers  Hamilton  to  Col.  Burr,  to  make  the  ar 
rangements  suitable  to  the  occasion. 

To  Monroe's  letter  Hamilton  replied  as  fol 
lows: 

'  '  Sir,  The  intention  of  my  letter  of  the  4th  in- 


66  A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON 

slant,  as  itself  imports,  was  to  meet  and  close 
with  an  advance  towards  a  personal  interview, 
which  it  appeared  to  me  had  been  made  by  you. 
"From  the  tenor  of  your  reply  of  the  6th, 
which  disavows  the  inference  I  had  drawn,  any 
further  step  on  my  part,  as  being  inconsistent 
with  the  ground  I  have  heretofore  taken,  would 
be  improper. " 

An  impotent  conclusion  to  his  amour  with 
Mrs.  Eeynolds  and  to  his  speculative  venture 
with  her  husband !  To  the  most  impartial  mind 
the  picture  which  Hamilton  draws  of  his  own 
character  is  one  so  unconscious  of  his  own  base 
tergiversations  throughout  his  vindication,  that 
it  involuntarily  recalled  the  rough  doggerel 
lines  I  often  heard  in  my  youth : 

"It  wired  in  and  wired  out, 
And  left  the  mind  still  in  doubt, 
Whether  the  snake  that  made  the  track 
Was  going  south  or  coming  back." 

In  the  quotations,  so  numerous  as  they  are,  I 
have  tried  to  be  just,  impartial,  and  judicial,— 
setting  down  nothing  in  malice  nor  prejudice. 
From  the  statements  in  his  vindication  and  the 
letters  in  his  appendix  to  it,  it  is  clear  that  Alex 
ander  Hamilton  never  conceived,  and  from  his 


A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON  67 

moral  nature  was  utterably  unable  to  conceive, 
much  less  to  appreciate,  the  three  great  out 
standing  facts  in  all  human  affairs  —  no  man  ever 
told  a  lie  and  killed  it  ;  no  man  ever  committed 
a  dishonest  act  and  so  covered  it  that  it  was  not 
brought  to  light  at  some  future  time;  no  man 
ever  perpetrated  a  fraud  and  destroyed  all  the 
evidences  of  it.  Why  did  Hamilton  drop  out 
of  all  consideration  Venable  and  Muhlenberg! 
All  three  (Monroe,  Venable,  and  Muhlenberg) 
took  part  in  the  interview,  and  substantially 
agree  as  to  what  was  said  and  done  by  Hamilton 
and  by  them.  Was  Hamilton  in  doubt  about 
Monroe  's  courage  and  hoped  to  win  again  the 
confidence  of  the  public  by  a  display  of  bravery 
which  Monroe  would  shrink  from  meeting  ?  The 
other  two  were  equally  involved  in  the  subse 
quent  events.  I  can  offer  no  solution  of  this 
mystery. 

In  justice  to  the  subject  of  this  writing,  let  us 
take  a  glance  at  history  contemporaneous  with 
Hamilton,  which  I  shall  do  in  my  next  chapter. 

fo  A  < 


V     WAS     OF 

1  j>    A 


DC*  -A  D 


CHAPTEE  IV 

This  study  has  been  confined  exclusively  to 
the  vindication  until  now.  In  glancing  at  the 
history  of  Hamilton's  time  I  desire  again  to 
mention  the  dates  at  which  this  trouble  began. 
Hamilton  first  met  Mrs.  Eeynolds  "some  time 
in  the  summer  of  the  year  179.1."  He  plastered 
her  husband's  wounded  honor  twice — December 
22d,  the  plaster  costing  him  $600  "on  account  of 
a  sum  of  one  thousand  dollars  due  to  me"  (Eey 
nolds),  and  January  3rd,  1791,  the  plaster  cost 
ing  him  $400  "in  full  of  all  demands."  Both 
plasters  were  applied  fully  six  months  before 
Hamilton  first  met  Mrs.  Eeynolds.  The  inter 
view  between  Hamilton  and  Monroe,  Venable, 
and  Muhlenberg  occurred  in  December,  1792. 
Hamilton  resigned  his  secretaryship  the  last  of 
December,  1795.  Callender  published  his  two 
books  in  1797,  described  as  a  History  of  the 
United  States  for  1796,  the  last,  or  No.  VI,  as  it 
is  usually  called  in  these  documents,  some  time 
in  the  fall  of  that  year,  as  the  preface  bears  date 
of  July  17,  1797.  The  vindication  was  written 
in  refutation  of  the  charges  contained  in  Cal 
lender  's  history,  especially  those  contained  in 


A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDEK    HAMILTON  69 

No.  VI,  so  the  vindication  was  published  after 
July,  1797,  more  than  six  years  after  Hamil 
ton's  first  tryst  with  Mrs.  Eeynolds. 

In  the  intervals  between  these  dates  James 
Eeynolds  disappeared,  and  the  inference  justi 
fied  by  the  surrounding  circumstances  is  that 
he  disappeared  between  the  interview  in  De 
cember,  1792,  and  his  resignation  in  December, 
1795.  The  real  cause  of  this  mysterious  disap 
pearance  has  not  yet  been  discovered,  but  one 
fact  has  been  made  public  by  Hamilton's  vindi 
cation  and  the  interviews  .  and  the  Callender 
book  No.  VI — that  Reynolds  disappeared  that 
Hamilton's  officiaL honor  might  be  protected, 
and  possibly  that  Hamilton  might  Jbe  saved  from 
a  criminal  prosecution.  ~N  o  history,  •no-Yeminis- 
cence,  no  memoir  of  those  times  has  ever  dis 
closed  to  the  American  public  the  bitterness  and 
the  hatred  that  gave  life  and  venom  to  the  po 
litical  strife  of  those  days  as  do  these  books, 
No.  V  and  No.  VI,  which  were  given  to  the  world 
as  history. 

I  quote  from  the  preface  to  No.  VI : 

'  '  When  the  fifth  number  of  this  book  was  pub 
lished,  Mr.  Alexander  Hamilton  printed,  in  Mr. 
Fenno's  gazette,  a  denial  of  his  connection  with 


70  A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON" 

Eeynolds.  He  has  now  come  from  New  York 
to  complete  a  satisfactory  statement.  Like  the 
pot  whitewashing  the  kettle,  he  has  already  re 
ceived  from  Mr.  Wolcott  a  certificate  of  his  vir 
tue.  He  is,  at  present,  also  soliciting  Mr.  Mon 
roe  and  Mr.  Muhlenberg,  on  both  of  whom  he 
had  heaped  mountains  of  calumny.  Mr.  Hamil 
ton  entreats  them,  to  atte&Lhis  innocence,  that  is 
to  say>  their  belief  of  his  having^efrauched  Mrs. 
Reynolds." 

Alexander  Hamilton  was  furnishing  not  only 
topics  for  social  gossip,  but  subjects  for  dis 
cussion  in  commercial  as  well  as  in  political 
circles.  I  now  desire  to  call  attention  to  some 
letters  published  in  the  vindication  and  in  Cal- 
lender's  history,  which  letters  supposedly  were 
written  by  Eeynolds.  I  will  take  a  short  letter 
from  each  publication,  copying  them  exactly  as 
they  are  printed : 

From  the  vindication,  page  21 : 

Philadelphia  7th,  April  1792. 
Sir. 

"I  am  sorry  to  inform  you  my  setivation  is 
such.  I  am  indebted  to  a  man  in  this  town  about 
45  dollars  which  he  will  wate  no  longer  on  me. 
now  sir  I  am  sorrey  to  be  troubleing  you  So 


A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON  71 

offen.  which  if  you  Can  Oblige  me  with  this  to 
day.  you  will  do  me  infenate  service,  that  will 
pay  Nearly  all  I  owe  in  this  town  except  yourself. 
I  have  some  property  on  the  North  River  which 
I  have  Wrote  to  my  Brother  sell  which  as  soon 
as  it  Come  in  my  hands.  I  pay  you  every  shil 
ling  with  the  strictest  Justice  you  Oblige  me 
with,  the  inclose  is  the  Receipt,  for  the  amount 

"I  am  sir  with  due  Regard,  your  humble  ser 
vant  James  Reynolds. 

' '  Alexr.  Hamilton  Esqr. ' ' 

Examine  the  spelling,  the  use  of  capital  letters 
in  the  middle  of  a  sentence  where  they  are  not 
correct,  and  the  misuse  of  words  in  the  letter. 
Can  it  be  possible  that  Reynolds  was  so  igno 
rant,  illiterate  and  so  uneducated  as  this  letter 
indicates?  Reynolds  disappeared  in  a  myste 
rious  manner,  at  an  unexpected  moment,  shortly 
after  this  letter  is  dated. 

I  copy  a  letter  written  by  Reynolds  from  the 
Callender  history,  No.  VI,  page  221 : 

i  l  Thursday  one  o  'clock 

"  13th  December  1792 
1  l  My  dear  Mr.  Clingman : 

"I  hope  I  have  not  forfeited  your  friendship, 
the  last  night's  conversation,  don't  think  any- 


72  A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON 

tiling  of  it,  for  I  was  not  myself.  I  know  I  have 
treated  *  *  friend  ill,  and  too  well  I  am 
convinced  [here  about  three  lines  are  torn  out] 
to  have  satisfaction  from  his  at  all  events,  and 
you  onely  I  trust  too.  I  will  see  you  this  evening. 
He  has  offered  to  furnish  me  and  Mrs.  Reynolds 
with  money  to  carry  us  off.  If  I  will  go,  he  will 
see  that  Mrs.  Eeynolds  has  money  to  follow  me, 
and  as  for  Mr.  Francis,  he  sas  he  will  make  him 
swear  back  what  he  has  said,  and  will  turn  him 
out  of  office.  This  is  all  I  can  say  till  I  see  you. 

"I  am,  dear  Clingman,  believe  me,  forever 
your  sincere  friend, 

"James  Eeynolds. 

1 '  Mr.  Jacob  Clingman. ' ' 

Give  to  these  letters  a  just  and  impartial  com 
parison.  Did  the  same  Eeynolds  write  both  let 
ters?  If  so,  point  to  the  internal  evidence  that 
proves  it  other  than  the  name  signed  to  both. 
If  he  wrote  them  both,  what  object  did  he  have 
in  exhibiting  in  the  letter  to  Hamilton  such  igno 
rance — a  lack  of  even  ordinary  common  school 
education!  Knowing  that  Eeynolds  was  gone, 
no  one  knew  where,  never  to  return,  did  Hamil 
ton  forge  this  letter  to  furnish  internal  evidence 
that  he  was  giving  a  description  full  and  accu- 


A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDEE    HAMILTON  73 

rate  of  the  man's  character  when  he  called  him  a 
reptile  and  a  rascal  ? 

If  this  inference  be  not  justified  by  the  facts, 
why  did  Reynolds  change  his  style,  his  language, 
his  rhetoric,  and  his  spelling  when  he  wrote  to 
Clingman!  The  letters  "sas"  are  evidently  in 
tended  for  the  word  "says,"  and  it  is  just  as 
evidently  a  misprint,  for  he  uses  the  same  word 
in  the  second  line  following  and  spells  it  cor 
rectly. 

The  letter  to  Hamilton,  beyond  all  dispute,  is 
a  forgery — a  forgery  by  Alexander  Hamilton, 
who  knew,  as  a  lawyer,  the  impossibility  of  any 
one  proving  it  to  be  such. 

These  two  letters  never  were  written  by  the 
same  man.  Callender  could  have  had  no  motive, 
no  reason,  no  gain,  no  protection,  from  the  for 
gery  of  the  letter.  Hamilton  had — his  charac 
ter,  his  social  position,  his  political  influence,  in 
fact,  everything  near  and  dear  to  him  was  at 
stake,  if,  indeed,  there  was  anything  or  anybody 
near  enough  to  him  to  be  dear,  or  dear  enough 
to  him  to  be  near.  Eeynolds  was  gone.  He 
could  not  be  suborned  as  a  witness,  and  Hamil 
ton  therefore  was  obliged  to  furnish  positive, 
undisputed  internal  evidence  that  he,  Hamilton, 
would  not  have  employed  such  a  reptile  and  a 


74  A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON 

rascal  in  his  speculative  ventures  in  Treasury 
warrants. 

I  could  give  other  letters  written  by  Eeynolds 
to  substantiate  this  charge.  There  is  a  state 
ment  dated  Philadelphia,  15th  December,  1792, 
signed  by  James  Monroe,  Abraham  Venable, 
and  F.  A.  Muhlenberg,  published  in  Calender's 
history,  which  I  cannot  find  in  the  vindication, 
although  Hamilton  pretends  to  have  published 
in  the  vindication  every  document  relating  to 
its  subject.  It  is  indeed  a  very  important  docu 
ment,  signed  as  it  is  by  all  three,  and  therefore 
the  individual  statement  of  each  as  well  as  their 
joint  statement.  I  quote  from  Callender : 

No.  VI,  pp.  216,  217,  218:  "That  Eeynolds, 
at  the  same  time,  told  him  [referring  to  a  con 
versation  between  Clingman  and  Reynolds]  he 
had  been  received  by  Mr.  Hamilton,  the  morning 
of  that  day,  when  they  parted,  about  sunrise. 
That  he  was  extremely  agitated,  walking  back 
ward  and  forward  the  room,  and  striking  alter 
nately,  Ms  forehead  and  his  thigh;  observing 
to  him,  that  he  had  enemies  at  work,  but  was 
willing  to  meet  them,  on  fair  ground,  and  re 
quested  him  not  to  stay  long,  lest  it  might  be 
noticed. 


A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON  75 

"Mr.  Clingman  also  informs  us,  that  lie  re 
ceived  a  note  from  Mr.  Wolcot,  to  meet  him,  on 
Friday  morning,  at  half  past  nine  (which  note 
we  have).  That  he  attended,  and  had  an  inter 
view  with  him,  in  presence  of  Mr.  Hamilton; 
when  he  was  strictly  examined  by  both,  respect 
ing  the  persons,  who  were  inquiring  into  the  mat 
ter,  and  their  object ;  that  he  told  Mr.  Hamilton, 
he  had  been  possessed  of  his  notes  to  Eeynolds, 
and  had  given  them  up  to  these  gentlemen :  and 
to  which,  he  replied,  he  had  done  very  wrong. 
That  he  also  told  Mr.  Hamilton  of  the  letter  he 
had  received  from  Eeynolds,  since  his  enlarge 
ment,  mentioning  that  he  (Mr.  Hamilton)  would 
make  Francis  swear  back  what  he  had  said ;  and 
to  which  Mr.  Hamilton  replied,  he  would  make 
him  unsay  any  falsity  he  had  declared. 

"Mr.  Hamilton  said,  Reynolds  was  a  villain, 
a  rascal,  and  he  supposed,  would  swear  to  any 
thing. 

"Mr.  Wolcot  said,  that  unless  Clingman  used 
the  same  candour  to  him,  that  he  had  done  to 
Clingman,  he  should  not  consider  himself  bound. 

"Mr.  Hamilton  observed,  he  had  had  some 
transaction  with  Reynolds,  which  he  had  before 
mentioned,  as  well  as  Clingman  remembers,  to 
Mr.  Wolcot,  and  need  not  go  into  detail. 


76  A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON 

"Mr.  Clingman  also  informs  us,  that  Eey- 
nolds  told  him,  since  his  enlargement,  that  when 
he  was  about  to  set  out  to  Virginia,  on  his  last 
trip  to  buy  up  cash-claims  of  the  Virginia  line, 
he  told  Mr.  Hamilton,  that  Mr.  Hopkins  would 
not  pay  upon  those  powers  of  attorney ;  and  to 
which  he  (Mr.  Hamilton)  replied,  he  would  write 
to  Hopkins,  on  the  subject. 

"Last  night  we  waited  on  colonel  Hamilton, 
when  he  informed  us  of  a  particular  connection 
with  Mrs.  Reynolds:  the  period  of  its  commence 
ment,  and  circumstances  attending  it ;  his  visit 
ing  her  at  Inskeep's;  the  frequent  supplies  of 
money  to  her  and  her  husband,  on  that  account ; 
his  duress  by  them  from  fear  of  a  disclosure, 
and  his  anxiety  to  be  relieved  from  it  and  them. 
To  support  this,  he  shewed  a  great  number  of 
letters  from  Eeynolds  and  herself,  commencing 
early  in  1791.  He  acknowledged  all  the  letters 
in  a  disguised  hand,  in  our  possession,  to  be  his. 
We  left  him  under  an  impression,  our  suspicions 
were  removed.  He  acknowledged  our  conduct 
toward  him  had  been  fair  and  liberal :  he  could 
not  complain  of  it.  He  brought  back  all  the 
papers,  even  his  own  notes,  nor  did  he  ask  their 
destruction. 

"He  said,  the  dismission  of  the  prosecution 


A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON  77 

against  the  parties,  Eeynolds  and  Clingman, 
had  been  in  consideration  of  a  surrender  of  a 
list  of  pay  improperly  obtained  from  his  office, 
and  by  means  of  a  person,  who  had  it  not  in  his 
power  now  to  injure  the  department,  intimating 
he  meant  Duer ;  that  he  obtained  this  information 
from  Eeynolds;  owned  that  he  had  received  a 
note  from  Eeynolds  in  the  night,  at  the  time 
stated  in  Mr.  Clingman 's  paper,  and  that  he  had 
likewise  seen  him  in  the  morning  following: 
said  he  had  never  seen  Eeynolds  before  he  came 
to  this  place;  and  that  the  statement  in  Mr. 
Clingman 's  paper,  in  that  respect  was  correct. 
"January  2nd,  1793  [This  statement,  imme 
diately  following  the  one  just  quoted  is  signed 
by  James  Monroe  alone.]  Mr.  Clingman  called 
on  me  this  evening,  and  mentioned,  that  he  had 
been  apprised  of  Mr.  Hamilton's  vindication,  by 
Mr.  Wolcot,  a  day  or  two  after  our  interview 
with  him.  He  farther  observed  to  me,  that  he 
communicated  the  same  to  Mrs.  Eeynolds,  who 
appeared  much  shocked  at  it,  and  ivept  immod 
erately.  That  she  denied  the  imputation,  and 
declared,  that  it  had  been  a  fabrication  of  colonel 
Hamilton,  and  that  her  husband  had  joined  in  it, 
ivho  had  told  her  so,  and  that  he  had  given  him 
receipts  for  money  and  written  letters,  so  as  to 


78  A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON 

give  countenance  to  the  pretence.  That  he  was 
with  colonel  Hamilton,  the  day  after  he  left  the 
jail,  when  we  supposed  he  was  in  Jersey.  He 
was  of  opinion  she  was  innocent,  and  that  the  de 
fence  was  an  imposition. " 

I  shall  comment  upon  a  few  of  the  statements 
that  Hamilton  made. 

In  the  interview  the  subject  of  which  is  given 
in  this  extract:  "To  support  this  [referring 
to  Hamilton's  explanation],  he  shewed  a  great 
number  of  letters  from  Reynolds  and  herself 
commencing  early  in  1791." 

He  had  surely  forgotten  this  assertion,  made 
to  these  gentlemen,  when  he  said  in  his  vindica 
tion,  published  subsequently,  that  he  first  met 
Mrs.  Eeynolds  at  his  own  home  "some  time  in 
the  summer  of  the  year  1791. ' ' 

This  difference  in  dates  may  seem  to  be  a 
small  matter,  but  it  is  not.  It  goes  far  to  prove 
that  Hamilton  always  made  his  statements  ac 
cording  to  the  necessity  of  the  occasion.  "He 
acknowledged  all  the  letters  in  a  disguised  hand, 
in  our  possession,  to  be  his." 

Why  did  he  disguise  his  writing?  Was  it  to 
escape  his  guilt,  or  to  destroy  its  evidence  1  Was 


A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON  79 

it  fear  of  detection  and  consequent  exposure! 
What  business  was  he  engaged  in,  that  it  re 
quired  the  protection  of  this  cowardly  subter 
fuge! 

"Clingman  also  informs  us,  that  Reynolds 
told  him,  since  his  enlargement,  that  when  he 
was  about  to  set  out  to  Virginia,  on  his  last  trip 
to  buy  up  cash-claims  of  the  Virginia  line,  he 
told  Mr.  Hamilton,  that  Hopkins  would  not  pay 
upon  those  powers  of  attorney ;  and  to  which  he, 
(Mr.  Hamilton)  replied,  he  would  write  to  Hop 
kins,  on  the  subject." 

Hamilton  was  then  Secretary  of  the  Treasury. 
Why  should  Reynolds  have  gone  to  him  about 
Hopkins 's  opinion  if  Hamilton  was  not  inter 
ested  in  speculation  and  if  his  influence  was  not 
necessary  to  control  Hopkins  and  ensure  suc 
cess  to  the  venture?  If  Hamilton  was  not  a 
partner  in  the  speculation,  his  duty  to  his  office 
and  his  country,  to  his  official  oath  and  his 
honor,  required  him  to  decline  to  interfere  in 
Hopkins 's  discharge  of  his  official  duty.  Rey 
nolds  could  protect  neither  Hamilton  nor  his 
own  interest  in  the  venture  without  some  in 
fluence  strong  enough  to  change,  or  to  annul, 
Hopkins 's  decision.  If  Hopkins  should  refuse 


80  A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDEK    HAMILTON       ^ 

1» 

payment  of  the  claims  when  presented,  Hamilton 
could  not  afford  to  issue  an  order  for  their  pay 
ment  without  producing  trouble  and  his  own  ex 
posure.  It  was  certainly  a  very  remarkable  dis 
closure  as  to  some  business  matters  between 
them. 

"  said,  he  had  never  seen  Rey- 

nokls  before  he  came  to  this  place ;  and  that  the 
statement  in  Mr.  Clingman's  paper,  in  that  re 
spect,  Was  correct. " 

What  does  this  statement  mean!  In  the  vin 
dication,  published  in  1797,  Hamilton  refers  to 
frequent  meetings  between  Keynolds  and  him 
in  1791,  of  which  Mrs.  Reynolds  was  the  cause, 
and  hnTT  nnbnnqnmt  to  thflt  rintr.  hr  Trent  to 
Philadelphia.  Thun  lie  jayo  that  ke-had  never 
seen  ."Rpynnlrip  nTit.il  his  arrival  there.  No  one 
reciate  the  significance  of 

fvnr«P   ir>    mrnflTri <y   from 

rcation  this  sta 
"Hamilton  denounced  Reynolds  as  a  low  and 
profligate  man,  a  rascal,  a  villain,  a  repile  un 
kenneled,  and  as  an  accomplice  in  Hamilton's 
adulterous  amour  with  his,  Reynolds 's,  wife. 
The  world  has  seldom  produced  a  human  being 
so  base  as  these  epithets  describe  the  character 


A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDEE    HAMILTON  81 

of  Eeynolds  to  have  been.  But  was  there  any 
intimacy  between  uncongenial  natures  beyond 
the  relation  produced  by  their  speculative  ven 
tures  ;  or,  rather,  do  men  so  far  apart  in  social 
and  political  life  ever  become  so  intimate  as  the 
copy  of  the  note  that  follows  would  indicate, 
unless  the  tie  is  something  more  than  the  de 
bauchery  of  the  wife  by  the  connivance  of  the 
husband  and  the  use  of  that  husband  as  a  com 
mercial  broker? 

Callender,  No.  VI,  page  19 :  "It  is  utterly  out 
of  my  power  I  assure  you,  pon  my  honour,  to 
comply  with  your  request.  Your  note  is  re 
turned.  ' ' 

Eeynolds  evidently  had  asked  for  a  loan. 

If  their  intimacy  had  not  eliminated  all  social 
differences  between  them,  upon  what  justifiable 
ground  could  such  a  note  be  written  by  Hamilton 
to  one  so  far  below  him  in  rank  as  was  Reynolds  ? 
It  is  observable  that  there  is  in  the  first  letter 
not  the  slightest  touch  of  official  dignity  nor  per 
sonal  reserve.  He  is  writing  to  a  true,  tried,  and 
warm  friend.  There  is  in  it  a  slight  tinge  of  un 
expressed  regret,  which  "pon  my  honour "  he 
does  not  wholly  conceal,  but  he  trusts  that  the 
intelligence  of  this  dear  friend  will  appreciate 


82  A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON 

the  expression  of  regret  the  more  deeply  in  that 
it  is  not  revealed. 

Yet  it  seems  that  at  this  very  time  Hamilton 
wanted  to  get  rid  of  both  Mrs.  Eeynolds  and  her 
husband,  so  "offered,  if  they  would  leave  these 
parts,  not  to  be  seen  here  again,  to  give  some 
thing  clever. " 

What  must  have  been  Hamilton's  pain  and 
agony  when  he  found  that  if  he  would  clean  his 
official  character  he  would  have  to  tear  himself 
from  the  tender  and  loving  embraces  of  his  fasci 
nating  mistress?  It  has  occurred  to  me,  in  the 
critical  examination  of  this  vindication  and  the 
Callender  books,  that  Mrs.  Hamilton  must  have 
been  the  most  amiable,  the  most  charitable,  and 
the  most  angelic  woman  that  had  ever  lived, 
and  had  fully  and  conscientiously  accepted  as 
true  her  husband's  double  standard  of  morals, 
in  domestic  as  well  as  political  affairs.  She 
would  be  an  excellent  model  for  a  statue  to  Char 
ity,  to  be  erected  in  some  ideal  hall  of  fame,  or 
a  statue  to  the  domestic  virtues. 

Hamilton  was  naturally  vindictive.  At  times 
his  temper  was  furious,  although  generally  kept 
well  under  control  when  reflected  by  spoken 
words,  which  could  be  repeated,  and  to  which  at 
that  day  a  certain  personal  responsibility  was 


x. 

A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON  83 

always  attached.  It  was  in  his  confidential  let 
ters  only  that  he  poured  out  the  vials  of  his 
wrath  and  gave  ample  room  to  his  hate,  his 
malice,  and  to  his  calumnies.  It  is  inconceivable 
that  such  a  man  could  have  borne  the  treatment 
of  which  he  complained  from  a  rascal,  a  villain, 
and  a  reptile,  yet  have  kept  himself  in  such  a 
Christian  frame  of  mind — ready  to  forgive, 
ready  to  forget,  if  only  the  Eeynoldses  would  be 
gone.  Yet,  transient  as  this  attachment  to  Mrs. 
Reynolds  is  asserted  by  him  to  have  been,  he  put 
it  in  the  balance  against  his  official  integrity,  his 
personal  honesty,  and  the  confidence  of  the  pub 
lic.  From  the  very  hour  that  Mr.  Monroe  and 
his  colleagues  saw  Reynolds  Hamilton  must  have 
known  that  his  honor,  his  standing,  his  reputa 
tion,  everything  that  is  held  dear  by  an  honest 
man  and  a  gentleman  was  at  stake — except  the 
charity  of  that  loving  wife. 

Upon  what  basis  or  proof  has  the  charge  of 
a  speculative  venture  been  made  against  Ham 
ilton,  Reynolds  being  used  as  his  intermediate 
agent  or  broker  1  The  financial  condition  of  the 
country  was  such  that  many  despaired  of  the 
Republic.  The  soldiers  had  not  been  paid;  the 
creditors  were  clamoring  for  the  payment  of 
their  debts ;  the  Government,  in  truth,  was  bank- 


84  A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON 

rupt.  It  was  the  day  of  the  speculator.  Hamil 
ton,  knowing  better  and  more  fully  than  any 
other  man  in  the  whole  country,  from  his  official 
position,  the  exact  state  of  the  Treasury,  the 
amount  of  the  public  debt,  and  also  the  indebt 
edness  of  the  different  States,  concluded  that 
with  tact  he  could  make  his  fortune  without  be 
ing  caught  in  the  act.  His  amour  with  Mrs. 
Eeynolds  suggested  her  husband  to  him  as  his 
broker,  and  when  his  connection  with  her  became 
so  close  that  it  was  discovered  by  her  husband, 
he  realized  the  risk  that  he  was  running  in  com 
mitting  with  the  husband  a  more  heinous  offense 
than  an  "  indecorum "  with  the  wife. 

I  take  this  extract  from  Callender,  and  make 
no  excuse  for  its  length : 

Callender,  No.  VI,  pp.  224,  225:  "If  we  con 
sider  the  magnitude  of  the  object  before  them, 
it  was  highly  commendable  in  the  gentlemen  con 
cerned  in  these  enquiries  to  trace  the  matter  as 
closely  as  they  did.  (_Tne  funding  of  certificates 
to  the  extent  of  perhaps  thirty,  or  thirty- five 
millions  of  dollars,  at  eight  times  the  price  which 
the  holders  had  actually  paid  for  them,  presents, 
in  itself,  one  of  the  most  egregious,  the  most 
impudent,  the  most  oppressive,  and  the  most 


A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON  85 

provoking  bubbles  that  ever  burlesqued  the  leg 
islative  proceedings  of  any  nation.  The  debt 
that  could  have  been  discharged  for  ten  or  fif 
teen  millions  of  dollars,  was  funded  at  forty 
millions. 

"But  as  the  universal  suspicion  and  hatred 
which  the  formation  of  this  mass  had  excited, 
might,  at  some  future  period,  endanger  its  ex- 
istence,(the  assumption  act  was  brought  for 
ward.  This  law  incorporated  into  the  form  of 
stock  those  debts  contracted  by  individual  states 
during  the  war.  Hence  each  of  them  became, 
for  its  own  sake,  interested  in  the  support  of 
public  credit  which  implicated  a  riddance  of  the 
debt  especially  due  by  itself,  v  Thus  the  certifi 
cate  funds  were  inseparably  embodied  with  a 
powerful  and  popular  ally,  under  the  shelter 
of  whose  reputation  they  might  hope  for  some 
degree  of  longevity.  This  artful  measure  was 
pushed  through  Congress  by  the  same  party, 
who  funded  the  half-crown  certificates  at  twenty 
shillings.  But,  even  in  this  project,  it  is  enter 
taining  to  notice  the  blindness  and  precipitation 
of  conscious  guilt.  vThe  paper- jobbing  junto 
were  in  such  a  hurry  to  shelter  their  speculations 
under  the  wings  of  the  above  assumption  law, 
that  they  acted  the  measure  in  the  most  profli- 


86  A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON 

gate  or  bungling  manner  which  can  be  imagined. 
Take  notice !  They  pledged  the  public  faith  for 
twenty-two  millions  of  dollars  instead  of  eleven 
millions  of  dollars;  for,  the  latter  sum  would 
have  settled  the  claims,  if  a  reasonable  degree 
of  time,  of  judgment,  or  of  method  had  been  em 
ployed  upon  it." 

7 

This  extract  contains  a  true  picture  of  the 
financial  conditions  of  the  times  and  of  the  trans 
actions  of  men  connected  with  them.  A  calm  and 
impartial  survey  of  all  the  parties  involved  in 
Hamilton's  vindication  can  lead  to  but  one  con- 
clusion-^that  Eeynolds  was  Hamilton's  broker 
in  his  speculations  in  the  public  debt,  which  he, 
as  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  had  funded.  Mon 
roe,  Venable,  and  Muhlenberg,  who  had  heard 
of  these  charges  against  Hamilton,  had  under 
taken,  from  justifiable  patriotic  motives,  to  in 
vestigate  them. 

Hamilton  explains.  If  innocent,  and  if  con 
scious  that  no  dishonest  or  disreputable  act  as 
Secretary  could  be  proved  to  have  been  done  by 
him,  why  did  he  not  at  once  confront  his  accusers 
with  Eeynolds  and  his  wife  1  They  had  accused 
Hamilton  of  fraudulent  conduct — dishonest  offi 
cial  acts.  Instead  of  taking  the  only  course  that 


A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON  87 

would  forever  have  closed  the  lips  of  gossip,  of 
malice,  of  hatred  and  of  enmity,  he  sent  Rey 
nolds  and  his  wife  away. 

Eeynolds  disappeared  almost  immediately 
after  his  discharge  from  prison.  Did  his  wife 
have  any  reason  to  cause  him  to  disappear!  Did 
Monroe,  Venable,  Muhlenberg,  or  Clingman 
have  any  reason  to  desire  his  flight  ?  Reynolds, 
and  he  alone,  had  in  his  possession  the  indisput 
able  evidences  of  Hamilton's  guilt.  Hamilton, 
and  he  alone,  was  deeply  interested  in  Rey 
nolds  's  disappearance.  Hamilton's  safety  from 
disgrace,  and  possibly  from  a  public  prosecu 
tion,  could  be  secured  by  Reynolds 's  flight  only. 
To  have  been  confronted  with  Reynolds,  was  to 
bring  home  to  Hamilton  his  guilt,  in  all  its  con 
sequences.  His  name  and  his  fair  fame  would 
have  been  gone  forever.  He  would  lose  his  page 
in  history.  Why  was  the  mass  of  the  corre 
spondence  between  Hamilton  and  Reynolds  by 
the  desire  of  Hamilton  committed  to  the  flames  1 
He  was  then  Secretary  of  the  Treasury;  re 
signed  in  1795;  Calender's  books  were  pub 
lished  in  1797 ;  the  vindication  was  given  to  the 
public  in  the  early  fall  of  1797.  And  what  does 
Hamilton  do  in  the  argument  so  full  of  prevari 
cations,  evasions,  and  abusive  calumnies  upon 


88  A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON 

all  these  people,  coupled  with  unmanly  insinua 
tions,  as  to  Monroe,  Venable,  and  Muhlenberg? 
I  answer  my  own  question : — he  simply  took  ref 
uge  behind  the  petticoats  of  Mrs.  Eeynolds, 
knowing  that  James  Reynolds  was  too  far  away 
to  protect  those  skirts  from  the  cowardly  use  to 
which  Hamilton  had  put  them. 

I  shall  turn  now  to  the  history  of  the  period 
as  to  Hamilton's  stock-jobbing  operations  in 
government  certificates.  That  history  will  be 
found  in  the  Journal  of  William  Maclay,  senator 
for  the  short  term  from  Pennsylvania,  and  was 
published  by  his  grandson  in  1890,  some  portions 
of  which  had  been  previously  published,  for  dis 
tribution  among  the  members  and  friends  of  the 
family,  and  which  had  been  jealously  guarded 
from  public  scrutiny  by  Maclay 's  descendants. 
This  Journal,  one  of  the  most  remarkable  books 
in  the  whole  range  of  English  literature,  begins 
April  24,  1789,  and  ends  March  3,  1791,  when 
Maclay  retired  from  the  senate.  It  establishes 
beyond  a  doubt  that  William  Maclay  was  the 
true  founder  of  the  Democratic  party.  It  ends 
before  Hamilton  began  his  connection  with 
either  Mrs.  Eeynolds  or  her  husband,  and  of  the 
information  that  it  contains  neither  Monroe, 
Venable,  Muhlenberg,  nor  Callender  had  any 


A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON  89 

knowledge.  If  such  knowledge  had  been  theirs, 
it  would  not  have  been  necessary  to  have  used 
Reynolds  as  a  witness,  nor  for  Hamilton  to  have 
given  publicity  to  his  amour  with  Mrs.  Eeynolds. 

Page  177:  "The  business  of  yesterday  (rec 
ommendation  for  funding  certificates  of  the  pub 
lic  debt)  will,  I  think,  in  all  probability  damn 
the  character  of  Hamilton  as  a  minister  forever. 
It  appears  that  a  system  of  speculation  for  the 
engrossing  certificates  has  been  carrying  on 
for  some  time.  Whispers  of  this  kind  come  from 
every  quarter/7 

Page  179:  "Wadsworth  has  sent  off  his 
small  vessels  for  the  southern  states  on  the  er 
rand  of  buying  up  certificates.  Nobody  doubts 
but  all  commotion  originated  from  the  Treas 
ury,  but  the  fault  is  laid  on  Duer  but  respondeat 
superior." 

Page  188 :  "  If  I  needed  proof  of  the  baseness 
of  Hamilton,  I  have  it  in  the  fullest  manner. 
This  day  his  price  was  communicated  in  manu 
script  as  far  as  Philadelphia.  Thomas  Willing 
in  a  letter  to  the  speaker  of  the  Representatives, 
after  passing  many  eulogiums  on  Hamilton's 
plan,  concludes,  '  For  I  have  seen  in  manuscript 
his  whole  price '  and  it  has  been  used  as  the  basis 


90  A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON 

of  the  most  abandoned  system  of  speculation 
ever  broached  in  our  country.'7 

Page  268:  "The  most  villainous  and  aban 
doned  speculation  took  place  last  winter  from 
the  Treasury.  Some  resolutions  have  passed 
the  House  of  Eepresentatives  and  are  come  up  to 
us/' 

Page  269 :  "I  can  see  him  warping  over  in 
the  case  of  the  Baron  [Steuben's  extra  pension 
case]  to  get  a  sum  of  money  on  his  account  or 
rather  only  in  his  name  which  would  sink  imme 
diately  into  the  jaws  of  Hamilton  and  his  crew." 

Page  329 :  l ' Here  are  their  best  interests  sac 
rificed  to  the  vain  whim  of  fixing  congress  and 
a  great  commercial  town  (so  opposite  to  the 
genius  of  the  southern  planter)  on  the  Potomac 
and  the  President  has  become  in  the  hands  of 
Hamilton,  the  disci  out  of  every  dirty  speculation 
as  his  name  goes  to  wipe  away  blame  and  silence 
all  murmuring." 

Page  331:  "The  Secretary  [Hamilton]  and 
his  group  of  speculators  are  at  last,  in  a  degree 
triumphant.  Everything,  even  to  the  naming 
of  a  committee,  is  pre-arranged  by  Hamilton  and 
his  group  of  speculators. ' ' 

Page  377 :  "I  had  told  the  Treasurer  [Hamil 
ton]  some  time  ago  that  I  wanted  to  sell  him 


A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDEE    HAMILTON  91 

some  stock.  When  I  came  home  from  meeting 
I  found  note  from  him  imploring  that  he  would 
buy  to-morrow.  This  in  a  great  measure,  con 
firms  my  former  suspicions  with  respect  to  the 
Treasury. " 

In  this  transaction  Hamilton  did  not  use  either 
Keynolds  or  any  other  man  as  a  broker.  These 
extracts  are  surely  sufficient  to  carry  conviction 
to  any  impartial  mind.  But  if  they  do  not,  could 
that  conviction  be  produced  if  I  piled  Pelion  on 
Ossa? 

This  remarkable  Journal,  self-evidently  the 
utterance  of  an  honest  man,  draws  a  picture  of 
Hamilton  in  comparison  with  which  Calender's 
books  are  only  daubs.  As  Maclay  retired  March 
3, 1791,  his  Journal  does  not  touch  upon  the  pro 
ceedings  between  Hamilton  and  Reynolds,  which 
Hamilton,  emboldened  by  impunity  in  the  past, 
felt  that  he  could  conduct  with  more  openness, 
and  with  certainty  of  greater  profit,  through  an 

pect,  TftScSarged  Duer,  Hamilton  suluuled  ^Rey 
nold  a  _g_s}  1-n'g  a^Ma±  If  Maclay  had  remained  in 
the  Senate  Hamilton's  interview  with  Monroe, 
Venable,  and  Muhlenberg  would  have  had  a 
more  tragic  ending.  Possibly  Washington 


92  A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON 

might  have  heard  of  these  transactions,  not  only 
from  these  gentlemen,  but  from  Maclay,  in  his 
official  character  as  Senator.  Hamilton's  resig 
nation  would  have  been  tendered  before  Decem 
ber,  1795,  and  Mrs.  Reynolds  might  have  es 
caped  the  infamous  avowal  of  his  amour. 

Imagination  fails  in  its  usual  office  when  it 
deals  with  the  conduct  and  character  of  such  a 
creature  as  Hamilton  disclosed  himself  to  be  in 
his  own  vindication.  These  extracts  from 
Maclay  are  the  evidences  of  Hamilton's  tact  and 
shrewdness  in  his  not  asserting  in  so  many 
words  that  he  had  never  bought  or  speculated 
in  government  certificates.  Maclay  was  still 
alive,  living  in  or  near  Philadelphia,  and  might 
have  been  called  as  a  witness.  What  then! 


CHAPTER  V 

During  the  War  of  the  Revolution  many  citi 
zens,  true  to  their  allegiance  to  the  English 
crown,  open  and  avowed  in  their  loyalty,  were 
called  Tories.  JVJ  any  of  them  desired  independ 
ence  for  the  colonies  in  some  measure,  but  did 
not  desire,  and  would  not  agree  to,  an  entire 
severance  of  all  the  political  ties  that  bound  them 
to  the  mother  country.  As  soon  as  the  Federal 
constitution  was  finally  adopted  by  all  the  col 
onies,  now  become  states,  a  party,  under  the 
leadership  and  formative  power  of  Alexander 
Hamilton,  came  into  existence,  with  ideas  of 
government  almost  as  much  English  as  Ameri-  ^^- 
can.  This  party  was  created  by  Hamilton,  and  V^ 
was  called  the  Federalists,  or  Federal,  party. 
Hamilton  inspired  and  guided  its  every  move 
ment,  its  every  thought,  and  its  every  ambition. 

Alexander  Hamilton  begat  the  Federal  party, 
the  Federal  party  begat  the  Whig  party,  the 
Whig  party  begat  the  Republican  party,  and 
these  three  parties  were  one  and  the  same  yes 
terday,  they  are  one  and  the  same  to-day,  and 
they  will  be  one  and  the  same  forever  and  for 
ever.  (^Hamilton 's  sole  object  was  to  create  a 

93 


i  A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDEB    HAMILTON 

government  outside  the  Federal  constitution, 
and  to-day  that  is  the  chief  object  of  the  Repub 
lican  party.  This  new  government  was  to  be 
made  out  of  the  doctrine  of  " implied  powers/' 
Under  the  constructive  decisions  of  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States,  which  always  has 
been  merely  the  exponent  of  Hamilton's  politi 
cal  opinions,  as  it  is  to-day  the  exponent  of  those 
opinions,  no  restrictions  limit  the  kind  of  gov 
ernment  that  may  be  established  under  the  doc 
trine  of  implied  powers.  John  Marshall  was  the 
judicial  exponent  of  Alexander  Hamilton — no 
more,  no  less. 

A  few  quotations  from  Maclay's  Journal  will 
give  some  startling  facts  to  my  readers. 

John  Adams  was  then  Vice-President.  The 
subject  before  the  senate  was  the  official  form 
of  addressing  the  President. 

Page  10:  "Mr.  Adams  rose  in  his  chair  and 
expressed  the  greatest  surprise  that  anything 
should  be  objected  to  on  account  of  its  being 
taken  from  the  practice  of  that  government  un 
der  which  we  had  lived  so  long  and  happily  for 
merly  ;  that  he  was  for  a  dignified  and  respect 
able  government  and  as  far  as  he  knew  the  senti 
ments  of  people,  they  thought  as  he  did:  that 


A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON  95 

for  his  part  he  was  one  of  the  first  in  the  late 
contest  [the  Eevolution]  and  if  he  could  have 
thought  of  this  he  never  would  have  drawn  his 
sword. " 

Page  12 :  "  The  unequivocal  declaration  that 
he  would  never  have  drawn  his  sword  etc.  has 
drawn  my  mind  to  the  following  remarks :  that 
the  motives  of  the  actors  in  the  late  Revolution 
were  various  cannot  be  doubted.  The  abolish 
ing  of  royalty,  the  extinguishment  of  patronage 
and  dependencies  attached  to  that  form  of  gov 
ernment,  were  the  exalted  motives  of  many  revo 
lutionists  and  these  were  the  improvements 
meant  by  them  to  be  made  of  the  war  which  was 
forced  on  us  by  British  aggression — in  fine  the 
amelioration  of  government  and  bettering  the 
condition  of  mankind.  These  ends  and  none 
other  were  publicly  avowed  and  all  our  consti 
tutions  and  public  acts  were  formed  in  this  spirit 
yet  there  were  not  wanting  a  party  whose  mo 
tives  were  different.  They  wished  for  the  loaves 
and  fishes  of  government  and  cared  for  nothing 
else  but  a  translation  of  the  diadem  and  sceptre 
from  London  to  Boston,  New  York,  or  Philadel 
phia,  or,  in  other  words,  the  creation  of  a  new 
monarchy  in  America  and  to  form  niches  for 
themselves  in  the  temple  of  royalty." 


96  A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON 

CPage  389:  "Annihilation  of  state  govern 
ment  is  undoubtedly  the  object  of  these  people. " 

Page  116 :  ' '  Grayson  made  a  speech.  It  was 
not  long  but  he  had  in  it  this  remarkable  sen 
tence — the  matter  predicted  by  Mr.  Henry  is 
now  coming  to  pass — consolidation  is  the  object 
of  the  new  government  and  the  first  attempt  will 
be  to  destroy  the  senate,  as  they  are  the  repre 
sentatives  of  the  state  legislatures." 

Page  393:  "The  new  constitution  by  the  in 
strumentality  of  the  judiciary  etc.  aims  at  the 
government  of  individuals,  and  the  states,  unless 
as  to  the  conceded  points  and  with  regard  to 
their  individual  sovereignty  and  independence, 
are  left  upon  stronger  ground  than  formerly 
and  it  can  only  be  by  implication  or  inference 
that  the  general  Government  can  exercise  con 
trol  over  them  as  states.  Any  direct  or  open  at 
tack  would  be  termed  usurpation.  But  whether 
the  gradual  influence  and  encroachments  of  the 
General  Government  may  not  gradually  swallow 
up  the  state  governments  is  another  matter. " 

Page  392:  "Henry  of  Maryland  joined  with 
him;  said  the  constitution  of  the  United  States 
implied  everything;  it  was  a  most  admirable 
system.  Thus  did  these  heroes  vapour  and  boast 
of  their  address  in  having  cheated  the  people 


A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDEK    HAMILTON  97 

and  establishing  a  form  of  government  over 
them  which  none  of  them  expected. " 

These  are  sufficient — they  tell  the  tale  as 
never  before  in  an  American  history.  Once 
more: 

Page  393 :  l  i  The  general  power  to  carry  the 
constitution  into  effect  by  a  constructive  inter 
pretation  would  extend  to  every  case  that  Con 
gress  may  deem  necessary  or  expedient." 

Substitute  the  federal  supreme  court  for  con 
gress,  and  you  have  political  conditions  as  they 
are  to-day. 

These  are  Alexander  Hamilton's  political 
doctrines,  not  avowed  or  put  into  acts  until  he 
became  Secretary  of  the  Treasury.  If  Bibot  or 
some  other  scientist  of  Europe  or  of  America 
is  yet  searching  the  annals  of  the  human  race, 
studying  the  traits  of  human  character,  with  the 
purpose  of  proving  the  laws  of  heredity  to  be 
absolutely  true,  and  is  not  yet  fully  convinced  of 
its  truth,  fixed  as  the  laws  of  the  Medes  and 
Persians,  let  him  devote  a  few  spare  moments 
to  an  impartial  study  of  Alexander  Hamilton's 
career,  private  and  public,  and  of  the  life  of  his 


98  A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDEE    HAMILTON 

child,  the  Federal  party,  of  his  grandchild,  the 
Whig  party,  and  of  his  great-grandchild,  the  Ee- 
publican  party,  and  he  will  find  nothing  truer 
than  the  old  maxim :  Like  father,  like  son ;  or, 
this  old  saying:  Water  never  rises  above  its 
source.  Alexander  Hamilton  resurrected  the 
doctrine  of  ' '  implied  powers. ' '  In  England  that 
doctrine  was  called  the  "prerogative  of  the 
crown/'-  Its  exercise  cost  Charles  I  his  head.  Its 
constant  exercise  brought  about  the  revolution 
of  the  seventeenth  century  in  England.  In 
France  it  was  crystallized  into  a  living  fact  by 
Louis  XIV,  who  proclaimed:  "I  am  the  state, 
or  the  state  is  myself. ' '  It  was  the  cause  of  the 
French  Eevolution. 

( In  this  country  the  doctrine  of  implied  powers 
was  in  reality  the  real  cause  of  our  colonial 
grievances,  and  was  in  very  truth  the  mother 
of  the  American  Eevolution.  It  has  appeared  in 
'  all  countries,  and  it  has  the  singular  power  to 
change  its  name  and  its  appearance  to  suit  its 
surroundings  to  the  nature  of  the  government 
under  which  it  operates.  It  is  the  backbone  of 
usurpation  by  the  executive,  as  it  is  the  source 
of  his  unlawful  power.  Under  our  written  con 
stitution  the  doctrine  of  implied  powers  must 
first  be  put  into  the  form  of  a  law,  which,  when 


A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDEB    HAMILTON  99 

tested  by  our  federal  supreme  court,  is  decided 
to  be  constitutional.  Thus  through  the  opera 
tion  of  a  judicial  opinion  another  power  is  given 
to  congressional  legislation.  In  this  way  doubt 
ful  powers  can  be  made  certain,  and  their  exer 
cise  be  justified,  by  a  judicial  decision.  In  the 
case  of  the  doctrine  of  "implied  powers"  in  our 
government  under  a  written  constitution,  power 
actually  denied  to  Congress  has  been  decided 
by  the  Supreme  Court  to  have  been  impliedly 
granted.  Where  is  the  limit  to  this  constructive 
enlargement  of  congressional  power?  There 
can  be  none,  unless  the  Supreme  Court  sees  fit 
to  fix  it. 

But  when  will  that  court  draw  the  linxe  of 
demarcation,  and  where?  Alexander  Hamil 
ton's  fame  rests  on  two  things: — his  o^says  in  \ 
defense  of  the  Constitution  in  The  Federalist;  \ 
and  his  resurrection  of  the  royal  doctrine  of  im- 
plied  powers.  Although  there  is  not  a  dot  of 
an  "i"  nor  the  cross  of  a  "t"  in  our  entire  or 
ganic  law  that  belongs  to  him,  yet  he  defended 
it  with  masterly  ability.  He  called  it  a  rope  of 
sand — because  he  could  make  no  better  law.  He 
attended  the  constitutional  convention  at  inter 
vals,  and  then  only  for  very  short  periods. 

While  many  public  men  desired  the  independ- 


100          A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON 

ence  of  the  colonies,  and  in  every  way  contrib 
uted  to  the  success  of  the  conflict  between 
Great  Britain  and  the  colonies,  yet  the  antagon 
ism  of  their  opinions  as  to  the  nature  and  pow 
ers  of  the  government,  after  the  colonies  had 
won  their  independence  and  had  emerged  from 
the  conflict,  each  an  independent,  separate  state 
or  sovereignty,  divided  them  into  two  radical  and 
distinct  parties.  The  same  antagonisms  exist 
to-day.  One  party  desired  an  imperialism  un 
der  the  form  of  a  republic.  These  men  became 
Federalists,  then  Whigs,  and  now  they  are  Be- 
publicans,  of  whom  Alexander  Hamilton,  the 
father,  is  still  the  inspiration  and  the  idol.  The 
other  party  demanded  a  true  and  genuine  re 
public,  in  form,  in  power,  and  in  nature.  These 
men  became  Democrats,  and  they  are  still  Demo 
crats,  of  whom  Senator  Mac! ay,  of  Pennsyl 
vania,  was  ihe  true  organizer  and  founder,  but 
of  whom  Jefferson  became  the  real  leader.  The 
principles  which  formed  these  men  into  dis 
tinct  and  different  political  parties  are  the  same 
to-day. 

I  again  quote  from  Bassett,  Nation  series, 
page  28  : 

(j"  Hamilton's  scheme  had  also  a  political  pur- 


A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDEK    HAMILTON          101 

pose,  which  was  more  important  than  its  finan 
cial  side.  He  saw  that  pursuing  a  strong  fiscal 
policy  he  would  draw  to  his  party-following  the 
moneyed  classes.  In  this  respect  he  profited  by 
his  knowledge  of  English  history,  for  he  knew 
that  since  the  days  of  Walpole  the  wealthy  part 
of  the  population  had  exercised  a  political  in 
fluence  out  of  proportion  to  its  numbers.  The 
real  object  in  forming  a  written  constitution  was 
to  define  the  rights  and  powers  so  that  the  gov 
ernment  could  not  usurp  or  exercise  any  power 
not  expressly  granted — in  other  words,  forever 
to  kill,  destroy,  and  exclude  from  the  American 
system  the  doctrine  of  implied  powers,  which  in 
one  form  or  another,  as  a  prerogative  of  kings, 
or  as  the  necessity  of  government,  had  caused 
so  much  bloodshed  in  England.  I  quote  Crom 
well  Army,  by  C.  H.  Firth,  chap.  'Politics  in  the 
Army, '  page  354 :  *  The  demand  for  security  for 
the  future  necessarily  led  to  direct  interference 
in  the  political  settlement  of  the  Kingdom.  For 
the  soldiers  held  that  they  could  not  be  secure 
if  the  King  was  restored  to  his  authority  without 
proper  restrictions  or  the  parliament  left  in 
possession  of  the  unlimited  powers  it  had 
abused.  All  wise  men  may  see,'  declared  the 
Army,  'that  parliament  privileges  as  well  as 


102          A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDEE    HAMILTON" 

royal  prerogatives  may  be  perverted  or  abused 
to  the  destruction  of  those  greater  ends  for 
whose  protection  and  preservation  they  were  in 
tended,  to  wit :  the  rights  and  privileges  of  the 
people  and  safety  of  the  whole.'  " 

Firth,  page  355,  referring  to  the  "  Heads  of 
the  Proposals  of  the  Army,"  says:  "Its  chief 
characteristic  was  that  it  aimed  at  permanently 
limiting  not  only  the  power  of  the  King  but  also 
the  power  of  parliament,  and,  therefore,  it  nat 
urally  failed  to  commend  itself  to  either. ' ' 

The  basic  principle  of  the  American  Eevolu- 
tion  involved  the  sovereignty  of  the  people. 
Consequently  the  people,  and  the  people  alone, 
had  the  right  to  make  the  government  by  which 
they  were  to  be  governed,  according  to  a  form 
to  be  selected  by  themselves.  Under  the  opera 
tion  of  this  fundamental  principle  the  govern 
ment  was  their  agent.  The  government  ceased 
then  and  there  to  be  sovereign,  and  became 
based  on  the  personality  of  man. 

This  fundamental  principle  was  the  beginning 
of  a  new  dispensation  in  politics.  It  owes  its 
origin  to  the  political  side  of  Calvinism,  for 
John  Calvin,  and  he  alone,  discovered  the  per 
sonality  of  man.  He  found  man  a  slave;  he 


A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDEK    HAMILTON          103 

made  him  a  freeman.    He  found  him  a  subject ; 

;ure  of  the  federal 


constitution  was  the  moral 
ohn 


poration  under  the  old  thepfy"swas  an  act  of 
sovereignty;  hence  Hamilton  advocated  a  fed 
eral  bank,  although  he  knAr  personally  that  the 
power  to  organize  .a  bank  expressly  had  been 
denied  to  the  federal  gov&*mmen£/  John  Mar 
shall  announced  that  a  chartelr|fassed  by  a  state 
government  was  a  contract,  therefore  protected 
by  the  federal  constitution.  The  next  step  was 
to  decide  that  the  federal  congress  had  the  im 
plied  power  to  create  a  corporation,  and  Mar 
shall  did  so  decide.  The  work  was  accomplished. 
The  treasonable  design  of  Alexander  Hamilton 
and  John  Marshall  was  a  judicial  success,  and 
the  grand  work  of  the  American  Kevolution  was 
undone,  and  once  more  in  defiance  of  God  and 
human  rights,  Man  was  sunk  to  a  subject,  and 
Government,  with  its  divine  right  to  reign,  was 
announced  as  the  monarchy  of  the  world.  Con 
sequently  the  old  conflict  that  has  surged 
through  all  human  history — the  conflict  between 
freedom  and  tyranny — has  not  yet  been  settled. 
In  this  country — free  America — Hamilton 


104          A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON 

and  Marshall  threw  our  government  back  upon 
the  highway  of  English  history,  behind  the  par 
liament  that  made  the  English  monarchy  a  con 
stitutional  government,  to  the  time  of  Charles  I, 
who  lost  his  head  by  asserting  that  the  preroga 
tive  of  the  king  contained  implied  powers  of  sov 
ereignty,  with  respect  to  which  he  was  the  sole 
judge  by  right  divine. 

It  is  necessary  to  this  argument  to  quote  in 
full  the  clause  of  the  federal  constitution  that 
gives  in  detail  the  powers  granted  to  congress. 
They  are  as  follows : 

"SECT.  VIII. 

"The  Congress  shall  have  power 

"  1.  To  lay  and  collect  taxes,  duties,  imposts, 
and  excises ;  to  pay  the  debts  and  provide  for  the 
common  defense  and  general  welfare  of  the 
United  States:  but  all  duties,  imposts,  and  ex 
cises  shall  be  uniform  throughout  the  United 
States: 

"2.  To  borrow  money  on  the  credit  of  the 
United  States : 

"3.  To  regulate  commerce  with  foreign  na 
tions,  and  among  the  several  states,  and  with 
the  Indian  tribes: 


A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON          105 

* '  4.  To  establish  a  uniform  rule  of  naturali 
zation,  and  uniform  laws  on  the  subject  of  bank 
ruptcies  throughout  the  United  States : 

"5.  To  coin  money,  regulate  the  value 
thereof,  and  of  foreign  coin,  and  fix  the  standard 
of  weights  and  measures : 

"6.  To  provide  for  the  punishment  of  coun 
terfeiting  the  securities  and  current  coin  of  the 
United  States: 

"7.     To  establish  post  offices  and  post  roads : 

"8.  To  promote  the  progress  of  science  and 
useful  arts,  by  securing,  for  limited  times,  to  au 
thors  and  inventors  the  exclusive  right  to  their 
respective  writings  and  discoveries: 

.  "9.     To  constitute  tribunals  inferior  to  the 
supreme  court : 

"10.  To  define  and  punish  piracies  and  fel 
onies  committed  on  the  high  seas,  and  offenses 
against  the  law  of  nations : 

' '  11.  To  declare  war,  grant  letters  of  marque 
and  reprisal,  and  make  rules  concerning  cap 
tures  on  land  and  water : 

"12.  To  raise  and  support  armies;  but  no 
appropriation  of  money  to  that  use  shall  be  for 
a  longer  term  than  two  years : 

"13.     To  provide  and  maintain  a  navy: 


106          A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDEE    HAMILTON 

"14.  To  make  rules  for  the  government  and 
regulation  of  the  land  and  naval  forces : 

' '  15.  To  provide  for  calling  forth  the  militia 
to  execute  the  laws  of  the  Union,  suppress  in 
surrections,  and  repel  invasions: 

' i  16.  To  provide  for  organizing,  arming,  and 
disciplining  the  militia,  and  for  governing  such 
part  of  them  as  may  be  employed  in  the  service 
of  the  United  States,  reserving  to  the  states  re 
spectively  the  appointment  of  the  officers,  and 
the  authority  of  training  the  militia,  according 
to  the  discipline  prescribed  by  Congress : 

"17.  To  exercise  exclusive  legislation,  in  all 
cases  whatsoever,  over  such  district  (not  ex 
ceeding  ten  miles  square)  as  may,  by  cession  of 
particular  states,  and  the  acceptance  of  Con 
gress,  become  the  seat  of  government  of  the 
United  States,  and  to  exercise  like  authority 
over  all  places  purchased  by  the  consent  of  the 
legislature  of  the  states  in  which  the  same  shall 
be,  for  the  erection  of  forts,  magazines,  arsenals, 
dock-yards,  and  other  needful  buildings:  And 

"18.  To  make  all  laws  which  shall  be  neces 
sary  and  proper  for  carrying  into  effect  the  fore 
going  powers,  and  all  other  powers  vested  by 
this  constitution  in  the  government  of  the  United 
States,  or  in  any  department  or  officer  thereof. ' ' 


A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON  107 

[  The  last  clause,  "and  to  make  all  laws  which 
\  shall  be  necessary  and  proper  for  carrying  into 
effect  the  foregoing  powers  and  all  other  powers 
vested  by  this  Constitution  in  the  government 
of  the  United  States  or  in  any  department  or 
officer  thereof,"  has  been  called  "the  elastic 
clause. ' '  A  better  name  for  it  would  be ' '  Trojan 
Horse,"  because  it  holds  in  itself  that  enemy  to 
the  state — the  doctrine  of  implied  powers.  A 
government  outside  of  our  written  constitution, 
with  its  expressly  enumerated  powers,  has  been 
built  up  in  this  country,  from  those  words,  by 
Hamilton  and  Marshall,  a  government  under 
which  its  citizens  now  live,  which  was  never 
thought  of  by  the  members  of  the  federal  con 
vention.  Take  each  subdivision  of  this  section : 
can  any  man  draw  the  conclusion  that  a  bank 
was  necessary  to  carry  into  effect  the  power 
mentioned?  A  bank  could  not  be  organized 
without  an  act  of  incorporation,  defining  and 
limiting  its  powers  and  their  exercise.  An  act 
of  that  sort  was  both  a  financial  and  govern 
mental  necessity.  Kasson,  in  his  Evolution  of 
the  Federal  Constitution,  page  126,  gives  an 
enumeration  of  twenty-one  different  powers 
proposed  by  Madison  to  the  convention.  Among 
them  was  the  power  ' '  to  grant  charters  of  in  cor- 


108          A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON 

poration. ' '  And  Kasson  then  says  that  the  pow 
ers  proposed  were  referred  to  the  committee  of 
detail,  but  were  not  reported. 

Kasson,  page  149 :  "There  is  no  trace  in  the 
recorded  debates  of  the  belief  of  a  single  mem 
ber  that  under  the  power  to  borrow  money  con 
gress  could  exercise  the  power  of  making  their 
bills  a  legal  tender  for  private  debts.  There  is 
rather  the  contrary  indication  that  they  consid 
ered  this  authority  non-existent  unless  it  should 
be  enumerated  among  the  express  powers 
granted.  The  authority  as  assumed  in  later 
years  appears  to  have  been  an  unwarranted  de 
duction  from  the  general  power  to  provide  for 
carrying  into  effect  other  powers  that  were 
granted.  The  Convention,  while  prohibiting  the 
power  to  the  States,  supposed  it  sufficient  to  sim 
ply  withhold  the  authority  from  the  Congress 
of  the  United  States/7 

This  analysis  as  to  this  particular  power,  if 
applied  to  any  or  all  the  other  powers,  would 
reach  the  same  logical  conclusion  as  to  the  crea 
tion  of  a  national  bank  under  any  of  the  other 
powers  expressly  enumerated  and  granted  in 
section  VII.  But  what  are  the  facts  as  to  the 


A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON  109 

action  of  the  convention  upon  this  important 
subject,  with  which  Hamilton  was  himself  as 
well  acquainted  as  any  man  in  that  convention 
or  out!  He  knew  well,  thoroughly,  the  mind  of 
the  convention  on  the  matter.  Bearing  in  mind 
that  Hamilton  was  a  member  of  the  convention 
and  signed  the  Constitution,  what  are  the  facts 
relative  to  this  subject? 

I  quote  from  Madison's  letter  to  Edmund 
Pendleton,  Madison  Papers,  Vol.  1,  page  104-5 : 

"Yesterday  was  opened  for  the  first  time  the 
bank  instituted  under  the  auspices  of  Congress. 
The  competency  of  Congress  to  such  an  act  had 
been  called  in  question  in  the  first  instance ;  but 
the  subject  not  lying  in  so  near  and  distinct  a 
view,  the  objections  did  not  prevail.  On  the  last 
occasion  the  general  opinion,  though  with  some 
exceptions,  was  that  the  confederation  gave  no 
such  power,  and  that  the  exercise  of  it  would 
not  bear  the  test  of  a  forensic  disquisition  and 
consequently  would  not  avail  the  institution. 
Something  like  a  middle  way  finally  produced 
an  acquiescing,  rather  than  an  affirmative  vote. 
A  charter  of  incorporation  was  granted,  with  a 
recommendation  to  the  States  to  give  it  all  the 
necessary  validity  within  their  respective  juris- 


110          A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON 

dictions.  As  this  is  a  tacit  admission  of  a  defect 
of  power,  I  hope  it  will  be  an  antidote  against 
the  poisonous  tendency  of  precedents  of  usurpa 
tion/7 

This  fact  is  furnished  by  the  history  of  the 
struggle  under  the  confederation.  It  is  very 
significant  in  its  political  nature,  and  important 
in  its  bearing  upon  the  convention,  which  did 
not  meet  till  1787. 

Madison  Papers,  Vol.  3,  page  1,576:  "Mr. 
Madison  suggested  an  enlargement  of  the  motion 
into  a  power  i  to  grant  charters  of  incorporation 
where  the  interest  of  the  United  States  might 
require  and  the  legislative  provisions  of  indi 
vidual  states  may  be  incompetent.'  Col.  Mason 
was  for  limiting  the  power  to  the  single  case  of 
canals.  He  was  afraid  of  monopolies  of  every 
sort,  which  he  did  not  think  were  by  any  means 
already  implied  by  the  Constitution,  as  supposed 
by  Mr.  Wilson." 

The  motion  being  so  modified  as  to  admit  a 
distinct  question,  specifying,  and  limited  to,  the 
case  of  canals,  the  vote  stood  Pennsylvania, 
Virginia,  Georgia,  aye  3 ;  the  others,  8,  no.  ' '  The 


A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDEE    HAMILTON          111 

other  part  fell,  of  course,  as  including  the  power 
rejected." 

These  are  the  facts.  They  are  the  only  true 
guides  to  a  correct  exposition  of  the  powers  of 
congress.  The  facts  that  underlie  contracts,  on 
account  of  which  laws  are  enacted  to  redress 
grievances  produced  by  them  or  to  protect 
rights  which  have  been  invaded,  alone  can  fur 
nish  the  rules  to  expound  and  interpret  those 
laws  and  contracts ;  and  when  they  are  ignored, 
discarded,  or  denied  the  exposition  points  to  a 
direct  usurpation  of  power,  having  its  birth  in 
the  imagination, — a  mental  bastard,  sui  generis. 
The  federal  constitution  was  germinated  out  of 
the  historic  facts  that  preceded  the  revolution 
of  1776.  When  the  Constitution  was  before 
South  Carolina  for  adoption  or  for  rejection, 
Colisworth  Pinckney  used  these  words:  "By 
this  settlement  we  have  secured  an  unlimited 
importation  of  negroes  for  twenty  years.  The 
general  government  can  never  emancipate  them, 
for  no  such  authority  is  granted,  and  it  is  ad 
mitted  on  all  hands  that  the  general  government 
has  no  powers  but  what  are  expressly  granted 
by  the  Constitution. " 

The  statement  made  by  Pinckney  was  of  fact, 
and  was  so  recognized  by  every  member  of  the 


112          A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON 

federal  convention.  When  the  members  re 
turned  to  their  several  states  to  plead  for  the 
adoption  of  the  Constitution,  not  one  of  them 
would  have  dared  to  intimate  in  any  way  the 
doctrine  of  implied  powers.  If  he  had,  the  con 
stitution  would  never  have  been  adopted  by  a 
single  state.  How  did  it  happen  that  this  in 
iquitous  doctrine, — which  in  England  had  cost 
Charles  I  his  head,  in  France  under  Louis  XIV 
had  sowed  the  seeds  that  blossomed  in  their 
full  growth  when  they  produced  the  French 
Bevolution,  and  which  in  this  country  will  yet 
produce  a  similar  revolution,  in  order  to  recover 
from  the  grasp  of  the  federal  supreme  court 
those  rights  and  principles  for  which  our  pa 
triotic  forefathers  rebelled  against  the  British 
crown  and  fought  the  war  of  1776, — how  is  it 
that  a  doctrine  so  iniquitous  became  fastened 
upon  us?  That  question  in  a  measure  can  be 
answered  by  the  words  of  Hamilton  himself,  to 
be  found  in  Vol.  3,  page  106,  Madison  Papers: 

"No  man's  ideas  were  more  remote  from  the 
plan  than  his  own  were  known  to  be;  but  is  it 
possible  to  deliberate  between  anarchy  and  con- 
wlsion  on  one  Bide  and  the  chance  of  g'ood  to-be 
expected  from  the  plan  on  the  other  1" 


A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON          113 

Note  those  significant  words,  "the  chance  of 
good. ' '  Hamilton  was  prepared  to  sign  the  Con 
stitution  on  this  ground,  and  on  none  other,  little 
dreaming  that  he  would  ever  have  the  ' i  chance  of 
good"  that  came  to  him  as  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury  to  start  that  radical  movement  that, 
under  John  Marshall,  was  to  wrench  the  Consti 
tution  from  constitutional  government,  then  cre 
ate  a  government  by  judicial  opinion  outside 
that  constitution,  to  gratify  Hamilton's  British 
proclivities,  and  to  make  the  federal  supreme 
court  the  political  and  judicial  autocrat  of  dem 
ocratic  America.  The  American  people,  through 
the  doctrine  of  implied  powers,  are  living  not 
under  the  federal  constitution,  but  under  the 
government  of  the  federal  supreme  court, — a 
government  created  of  its  own  imagination,  and 
in  defiance  of  the  constitution  which  that  court's 
judicial  oath  required  it  to  support  and  to  de 
fend.  And  that  court  is  to-day,  and  never  has 
been  other  than,  the  exponent  of  Alexander 
Hamilton's  political  principles,  through  John 
Marshall's  judicial  decisions,  which  have  been 
accepted  and  followed  as  infallible. 

Madison  Papers,  Vol.  3,  page  1507:  "Mr. 
Hamilton  said,  that  he  had  been  restrained  from 


114          A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDEB    HAMILTON 

entering  into  the  discussions  by  his  dislike  of  the 
scheme  of  government  in  general;  but  as  he 
meant  to  support  the  plan  to  be  recommended 
as  better  than  nothing,  he  wished  in  this  place  to 
offer  a  few  remarks. ' ' 

The  impudent  vanity  of  these  words  is  re 
freshing  when  one  calls  to  mind  that  Hamilton 
was  addressing  the  most  remarkable  body  of 
men  of  brains,  culture,  and  sagacity  that  ever 
assembled  on  this  globe,  and  at  the  same  time 
showing  to  those  men  his  cloven  foot,  which  was 
then  limping  back  to  England.  During  the  Revo 
lution  he  fought  for  the  colonies,  but  as  soon  as 
their  independence  was  won  and  acknowledged 
his  loyalty  to  the  monarchical  principles  and 
form  of  the  English  government  burst  forth  in 
all  its  pristine  vigor,  refreshed,  rejuvenated,  and 
reinvigorated  by  the  rest  of  the  Revolutionary 
struggle.  I  will  close  this  chapter  with  the 
words  of  Pierce  Butler,  of  South  Carolina,  "We 
were  always  following  the  British  Constitution 
when  the  reason  of  it  did  not  apply. " 


CHAPTER  VI 


Hamilton's  own  words  are  indisputable  evi 
dence  of  his  political  principles.     They  show 
from  its  English  grave  the 
's  prerogatrs^brought  it  tp-Anleftob^nd 

mplied  power^. ' ' 
I  quote  from  MadisonPl*%grs,  Vol.  2. 

Page  885,  speaking  of  the  states,  Hamilton 
said:  "They  are  not  necessary  for  any  of  the 
great  purposes  of  commerce,  revenue  or  agricul 
ture,  subordinate  authorities,  he  was  aware, 
would  be  necessary.  There  must  be  district 
tribunals — corporations  for  local  purposes.  But 
cui  bono  the  vast  and  expensive  apparatus  now 
appertaining  to  the  states. 

"In  his  private  opinion  he  had  no  scruple  in 
declaring,  supported  as  he  was  by  the  opinion 
of  so  many  of  the  wise  and  good,  that  the  British 
government  was  the  best  in  the  world ;  and  that 
he  doubted  much  whether  anything  short  of  it 
would  do  in  America. " 

Page  888 :  ' ' Let  one  branch  of  the  legislature 
hold  their  places  for  life  or  at  least  during  good 
behaviour.  Let  the  Executive,  also,  be  for  life. ' ? 

115 


116          A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDEK    HAMILTON 

Page  889:  "It  will  be  objected,  probably, 
that  such  an  Executive  will  be  an  elective  mon 
arch  and  will  give  birth  to  the  tumults  which 
characterize  that  form  of  government.  He 
would  reply  that '  monarch '  is  an  indefinite  term. 
It  marks  not  either  the  degree  or  duration  of 
power.  If  this  executive  magistrate  would  be 
a  monarch  for  life,  the  other  proposed  by  the  re 
port  from  the  committee  of  the  whole  would  be 
a  monarch  for  seven  years.  The  circumstances 
of  being  elective  was  also  applicable  to  both.  It 
had  been  observed  by  judicious  writers,  that 
elective  monarchies  would  be  the  best,  if  they 
could  be  guarded  against  the  tumults  excited  by 
the  ambition  and  intrigues  of  competitors.  He 
was  not  sure  that  tumults  were  an  inseparable 
evil.  He  thought  this  character  of  elective  mon 
archies  had  been  taken  rather  from  particular 
cases  than  from  general  principles." 

Page  890 :  "But  he  sees  the  Union  dissolving 
or  already  dissolved — he  sees  evils  operating 
in jjifi  states^whichmust  soon_cjLire_the  people  of 
jjjieir  fondnessToi1  (iernnpTamps — he  sees  that  a 
great  progress  has  been  already  made  and  is 
still  going  on  in  the  public  mind.  He  thinks, 
therefore,  that  the  people  will  in  time  be  un 
shackled  from  their  prejudices,  and  whenever 


A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDEB    HAMILTON          117 

that  happens  they  will  themselves  not  be  satis 
fied  at  stopping  where  the  plan  of  Mr.  Kandolph 
would  place  them,  but  be  ready  to  go  as  far  at 
least  as  he  proposes." 

Page  905 :  i '  He  had  not  been  understood  yes 
terday.  By  an  abolition  of  the  States,  he  meant 
that  no  boundary  could  be  drawn  between  the 
national  and  state  legislatures — that  the  former 
must  therefore  have  indefinite  authority.  If  it 
were  limited  at  all,  the  rivalship  of  the  states 
would  gradually  subvert  it.  As  states  he 
thought  they  ought  to  be  abolished.  But  he  ad 
mitted  the  necessity  of  leaving  in  them  subordi 
nate  jurisdictions. " 

If  the  states  were  abolished  the  government 
would  indeed  be  a  really  national  government, 
not  federal,  acting  directly  upon  the  people,  re 
gardless  of  state  rights,  and  touched  with  the 
poison  of  the  English  disease,  from  which,  in 
the  secret  chambers  of  his  profound  intellect, 
Hamilton  entertained  marvelous  hopes  in  the 
future.  Under  the  influence  and  the  guidance  of 
Hamilton 's  political  principles,  by  the  decisions 
of  the  federal  supreme  court  at  the  present  rate 
of  the  development  and  application  of  the  doc 
trine  of  implied  powers,  the  states  soon  will  be 


118          A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON 

abolished — but  empty  shells  on  our  political 
ocean.  In  only  a  few  more  years,  if  the  Supreme 
Court  does  not  go  back  to  the  Constitution,  the 
states  will  be  in  American  history  what  Junius 
is  in  English  literature — stat  nominis  umbra. 
The  senate  to-day  represents  the  states  and  their 
sovereignty,  and  that  fact  alone  is  indisputable 
proof  that  our  government  is  a  federal  union. 
The  dullest  man  in  the  convention  could  see  the 
drift  of  Hamilton's  thoughts  and  intentions— 
that  the  states  would  not,  could  not,  be  ignored 
in  their  sovereignty.  That  was  the  reason  that 
Hamilton  advocated  their  abolition. 

From  these  quotations,  coupled  with  his  opin 
ion  that  the  chief  executive  of  our  government 

^__   should  hold  office  for  life, — a  republican  king  un 
der  a  pretended  democratic  constitution, — and  a 

\  senate  whose  members  should  hold  their  seats 
for  a  similar  term,  or  during  good  behavior,— 
a  republican  bouse  of  lords, — you  have  the  pic 
ture  of  Hamilton  as  a  statesman  painted  by  his 
own  hand,  a  picture  by  a  man  that  fought  dur 
ing  the  Eevolution,  in  open  and  hostile  rebellion, 
that  these  very  institutions  be  not  fastened  upon 
the  colonies.  When  the  colonies  by  their  blood 
won  their  independence  and  had  become  in 
dependent  sovereignties,  Hamilton  advocated 


A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDEK    HAMILTON  119 

the  restoration  of  the  institutions  against  which 
he  had  fought.  Let  us  take  a  glance  as  this  man, 
advocating  in  The  Federalist  the  adoption  of 
this  same  constitution,  and  you  will  have  a  pic 
ture  of  him  as  an  advocate  ready  to  engage  in 
any  cause.  The  picture  will  be  in  strong  con 
trast  to  the  eulogies  and  the  biographies  of 
Hamilton  by  writers  who  have  taken  him  at  his 
own  estimate,  without  reflection  or  without  criti 
cal  examination  of  the  facts.  With  the  vast  ma 
jority  of  men  mental  attainments  are  not  the  re 
sult  of  digestive  thought,  but  the  reality  of  a 
retentive  memory  only.  Their  minds  are  only  a 
warehouse,  into  which  they  gather  the  thoughts 
of  other  men,  to  be  used  by  them  as  occasion  de 
mands.  They  read  mechanically,  and  they  think 
automatically  with  their  memories.  Their  in 
vestigations  travel  the  old  beaten  highway  of 
accepted  opinion,  and  if  they  accidentally 
stumble  upon  a  new  fact  they  are  so  enraptured 
with  the  discovery  that  they  neither  observe  its 
bearing  nor  ascertain  its  truth.  Even  Hudibras 
has  told  the  story  thus: 

"That  we  should  all  opinions  hold  authentic, 
that  we  can  make  old." 

The  Federalist  (Dawson's  edition),  page  50: 

"So  far  are  the  suggestions  of  Montesquieu 


120          A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON 

from  standing  in  opposition  to  a  general  union 
of  the  states  that  he  explicitly  treats  of  a  Con 
federate  Kepublic  as  the  expedient  for  extend 
ing  the  sphere  of  popular  government  and  rec 
onciling  the  advantages  of  monarchy  with  those 
of  Republicanism. " 

Here  follows  a  quotation  from  Montesquieu: 

"  It  is  very  probable  that  mankind  would  have 
been  obliged,  at  length,  to  live  constantly  under 
the  government  of  a  single  person,  had  they  not 
contrived  a  kind  of  constitution,  that  has  all  the 
internal  advantages  of  a  Eepublican,  together 
with  the  external  force  of  a  Monarchical  govern 
ment.  I  mean  a  Confederate  Kepublic.  This 
form  of  government  is  a  convention  by  which 
several  smaller  states  agree  to  become  members 
of  a  larger  one,  which  they  intend  to  form.  It 
is  a  kind  of  assemblage  of  societies  that  con 
stitute  a  new  one,  capable  of  increasing  by 
means  of  new  associations,  till  they  arrive  to 
such  a  degree  of  power  as  to  be  able  to  provide 
for  the  security  of  the  United  body.  A  Eepublic 
of  this  kind,  able  to  withstand  an  external  force, 
may  support  itself  without  any  internal  cor 
ruptions.  As  this  government  is  composed  of 
small  Eepublics,  it  enjoys  the  internal  happiness 


A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDEB    HAMILTON          121 

of  each;  and  with  respect  to  its  external  situa 
tion  it  is  possessed  by  means  of  the  association, 
of  all  the  advantages  of  large  monarchies. " 

I  have  thought  proper  to  quote  at  length  these 
interesting  passages,  because  they  contain  a 
luminous  abridgment  of  the  principal  argu 
ments  in  favor  of  the  union,  and  must  effectu 
ally  remove  the  false  impressions  which  a  mis 
apprehension  of  other  parts  of  the  work  was 
likely  to  make.  And  could  Hamilton  himself 
have  written  a  stronger  argument  to  refute  his 
doctrine  of  implied  powers  than  is  stated  in 
these  extracts! 

The  Federalist,  Dawson's  edition: 

Page  108 :  "But  let  it  be  admitted,  for  argu 
ment  's  sake,  that  mere  wantonness  and  lust  of 
domination  would  be  sufficient  to  beget  that  dis 
position;  still  it  may  be  safely  affirmed,  that 
the  sense  of  the  constituent  body  of  the  National 
representatives,  or,  in  other  words,  of  the  Peo 
ple  of  the  several  States,  would  control  the  in 
dulgence  of  so  extravagant  an  appetite.  It  will 
always  be  far  more  easy  for  the  State  Govern 
ment  to  encroach  upon  the  State  authorities, 
than  for  the  National  Government  to  encroach 


122          A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDEK    HAMILTON 

upon  the  State  authorities.  The  proof  of  the 
proposition  turns  upon  the  greater  degree  of 
influence  which  the  State  Governments,  if  they 
administer  their  affairs  with  uprightness  and 
prudence,  will  generally  possess  over  the  Peo 
ple;  a  circumstance  which  at  the  same  time 
teaches  us,  that  there  is  an  inherent  and  intrinsic 
weakness  in  all  Federal  Constitutions;  and 
that  too  much  pains  cannot  be  taken  in  their 
organization,  to  give  them  all  the  force  which  is 
compatible  with  the  principles  of  liberty." 

Page  199:  "An  entire  consolidation  of  the 
States  into  one  complete  National  sovereignty 
would  imply  an  entire  subordination  of  the 
parts;  and  whatever  powers  might  remain  in 
them,  would  be  altogether  dependent  on  the  gen 
eral  will.  But  as  the  plan  of  the  Convention 
aims  only  at  a  partial  union  or  consolidation, 
the  State  Governments  would  clearly  retain 
all  the  rights  of  sovereignty  which  they  before 
had,  and  which  were  not,  by  that  act,  exclusively 
delegated  to  the  United  States.  This  exclusive 
delegation,  or  rather  this  alienation,  of  State 
sovereignty,  would  only  exist  in  three  cases : 
where  the  Constitution  in  express  terms  granted 
an  exclusive  authority  to  the  Union;  where  it 
granted  in  one  instance  an  authority  to  the 


A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON          123 

Union,  and  in  another  prohibited  the  States  from 
exercising  the  like  authority:  and  where  it 
granted  an  authority  to  the  Union,  to  which  a 
similar  authority  in  the  States  would  be  abso 
lutely  and  totally  contradictory  and  repugnant." 
Pages  597,  598,  599:  "It  has  been  several 
times  truly  remarked,  that  Bills  of  Eights  are, 
in  their  origin,  stipulations  between  kings  and 
their  subjects,  abridgements  of  prerogative  in 
favour  of  privilege,  reservations  of  rights  not 
surrendered  to  the  prince.  Such  was  MAGNA 
CHARTA,  obtained  by  the  Barons,  sword  in  hand, 
from  King  JOHN.  Such  were  the  subsequent 
confirmations  of  that  charter  by  succeeding 
princes.  Such  was  the  Petition  of  Right  as 
sented  to  by  CHARLES  I,  in  the  beginning  of  his 
reign.  Such,  also,  was  the  Declaration  of  Eight 
presented  by  the  Lords  and  Commons  to  the 
Prince  of  Orange,  in  1688,  and  afterwards 
thrown  into  the  form  of  an  Act  of  Parliament 
called  the  Bill  of  Eights.  It  is  evident,  there 
fore,  that,  according  to  their  primitive  signifi 
cation,  they  have  no  application  to  Constitutions 
professedly  founded  upon  the  power  of  the  Peo 
ple,  and  executed  by  their  immediate  represent 
atives  and  servants.  Here,  in  strictness,  the 
People  surrender  nothing;  and  as  they  retain 


124          A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDEB    HAMILTON 

everything,  they  have  no  need  of  particular  res 
ervations.  'WE,  the  PEOPLE  of  the  United 
States,  to  secure  the  blessings  of  liberty  to  our 
selves  and  our  posterity,  do  ordain  and  establish 
this  Constitution  for  the  United  States  of  Amer 
ica.'  Here  is  a  better  recognition  of  popular 
rights,  than  volumes  of  these  aphorisms  which 
make  the  principal  figure  in  several  of  our  State 
Bills  of  Eights,  and  which  would  sound  much 
better  in  a  treatise  of  ethics,  than  in  a  Constitu 
tion  of  Government. 

"But  a  minute  detail  of  particular  rights  is 
certainly  far  less  applicable  to  a  Constitution  like 
that  under  consideration,  which  is  merely  in 
tended  to  regulate  the  general  political  interests 
of  the  Nation,  than  to  a  Constitution  which  has 
the  regulation  of  every  species  of  personal  and 
private  concerns.  If,  therefore,  the  loud  clam 
ours  against  the  plan  of  the  Convention,  on  this 
score,  are  well  founded,  no  epithets  of  reproba 
tion  will  be  too  strong  for  the  Constitution  of 
this  State.  But  the  truth  is,  that  both  of  them 
contain  all  which,  in  relation  to  their  objects,  is 
reasonably  to  be  desired. 

"I  go  further,  and  affirm,  that  Bills  of  Bights, 
in  the  sense  and  to  the  extent  in  which  they  are 
contended  for,  are  not  only  unnecessary  in  the 
proposed  Constitution,  but  would  even  be  dan- 


A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDEB    HAMILTON  125 

gerous.  They  would  contain  various  exceptions 
to  powers  not  granted ;  and  on  this  very  account, 
would  afford  a  colourable  pretext  to  claim  more 
than  were  granted.  For  why  declare  that  things 
shall  not  be  done  which  there  is  no  power  to  do  ? 
Why,  for  instance,  should  it  said,  that  the  lib 
erty  of  the  press  shall  not  be  restrained,  when 
no  power  is  given  by  which  restrictions  may  be 
imposed!  I  will  not  contend  that  such  a  pro 
vision  would  confer  a  regulating  power;  but  it 
ife  evident  that  it  would  furnish,  to  men  disposed 
to  usurp,  a  plausible  pretence  for  claiming  that 
power.  They  might  urge  with  a  semblance  of 
reason,  that  the  Constitution  ought  not  to  be 
charged  with  the  absurdity  of  providing  against 
the  abuse  of  an  authority,  which  was  not  given, 
and  that  the  provision  against  restraining  the 
liberty  of  the  press  afforded  a  clear  implica 
tion,  that  a  power  to  prescribe  proper  regula 
tions  concerning  it  was  intended  to  be  vested 
in  the  National  Government.  This  may  serve 
as  a  specimen  of  the  numerous  handles  which 
would  be  given  to  the  doctrine  of  constructive 
powers,  by  the  indulgence  of  an  injudicious  zeal 
for  Bills  of  Eights." 

Were  these  Hamilton's  real  opinions,  or  were 
they  merely  written  and  published  by  him  for  a 


126          A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDEB    HAMILTON 

definite  purpose,  like  the  argument  of  the  paid 
advocate!  The  question  is  pertinent,  because 
when  he  became  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  these 
opinions  were  all  dropped,  and  his  official  acts 
showed  his  true  opinions  on  government  and 
the  federal  constitution.  Hamilton  ought  to 
have  gone  to  England  after  the  Eevolution.  His 
magnetic  character  and  his  brilliant  intellect 
would  have  soon  found  ample  room  for  his  tow 
ering  ambition. 

Did  any  other  public  man  of  that  day  state 
the  organic  nature  of  our  government  under  the 
Constitution  in  such  clear  language,  or  prove 
so  indisputably  that  the  government  was  not  a 
national  government! 

But  this  significant  statement  on  this  subject 
is  to  be  found : 

Page  185:  "It  may  safely  be  received  as  an 
axiom  in  our  political  system,  that  the  State 
Governments  will,  in  all  possible  contingencies, 
afford  complete  security  against  invasions  of 
the  public  liberty  by  the  National  authority. 
Projects  of  usurpation  cannot  be  masked  under 
pretences  so  likely  to  escape  the  penetration  of 
select  bodies  of  men,  as  of  the  People  at  large. 
The  Legislatures  will  have  better  means  of  in- 


A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDEB    HAMILTON          12? 

formation.  They  can  discover  the  danger  at  a 
distance ;  and  possessing  all  the  organs  of  civil 
power,  and  the  confidence  of  the  People,  they 
can  at  once  adopt  a  regular  plan  of  opposition, 
in  which  they  can  combine  the  resources  of  the 
community.  They  can  readily  communicate 
with  each  other  in  the  different  States;  and 
unite  their  common  forces,  for  the  protection  of 
their  common  liberty." 

In  no  number  of  The  Federalist  can  any  one 
detect  even  a  hint  of  the  doctrine  of  implied 
powers.  In  his  discussion  of  this  "  elastic 
clause"  he  hints  in  the  most  adroit  manner  at 
the  powers  of  congress  to  carry  into  practical 
effect  the  powers  granted  in  this  entire  section ; 
but  he  uses  words  to  conceal  his  ideas. 

When  Hamilton  proposed  the  incorporation 
of  a  national  bank  Washington  at  first  had  se 
rious  doubts  on  the  subject,  so  asked  the  opinion 
of  his  cabinet.  Why!  As  president  of  the  con 
vention  he  had  kept  a  watchful  eye  upon  all  its 
proceedings.  He  knew  that  Madison  had  pro 
posed  by  resolution  to  grant  the  power  to  con 
gress  to  create  corporations,  and  that  the  reso 
lution  had  been  lost  by  a  very  large  majority. 
Hamilton  was  a  member  of  that  convention,  so 


128          A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON 

knew  the  same  fact.  Hamilton  proposed  to  in 
corporate  a  national  bank;  hence  Washington 
doubted. 

Jefferson  strongly  opposed  the  measure.  Our 
subsequent  history  is  indisputable  proof  that  a 
national  bank  is  not,  and  never  was,  a  necessity 
to  the  government  in  the  conduct  of  its  fiscal 
affairs.  Suppose  a  federal  bank  were  in  exist 
ence  to-day,  with  its  vast  subtle,  undetected  in 
fluence  in  our  public  affairs  through  Congress 
and  in  other  ways,  what  would  be  our  political 
condition,  not  only  at  Washington,  but  through 
out  this  broad  land,  where  there  are  open  and 
undisguised  corruption  in  high  places,  fawning 
sycophancy  and  cringing  cowardice,  when  pub 
lic  decency  cannot  walk  the  streets  of  our  federal 
capital  without  blushing,  and  while  a  politician 
to  be  honest  in  public  life  is  self-evident  proof 
that  he  is  an  impracticable  in  practical  politics  ? 
But  the  bank  was  proposed  with  a  well  defined 
object  in  his  view. 

His  point  gained,  this  measure  carried,  Ham 
ilton  supported  by  Washington's  supreme  in 
fluence  and  by  public  approval,  the  doctrine  of 
implied  powers,  concealed  under  the  adroit  argu 
ment  of  fiscal  necessity,  burst  forth  fully  grown 
like  Minerva  from  the  brain  of  Jupiter.  What 


A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDEE    HAMILTON  129 

then  became  of  the  position  that  the  Constitu 
tion  had  only  created  a  government  of  enumer 
ated  powers!  The  true  political  object  of  Ham 
ilton's  measure  was  to  build  up  a  government 
outside  the  federal  constitution  and  by  that 
means  to  fling  our  government  back  along  the 
pathway  of  English  history,  until  possibly  Ham 
ilton  might  realize  his  hope  of  seeing  his  model 
of  the  best  government  on  earth  in  practice  here 
despite  the  restrictions  set  forth  in  hac  verba 
in  the  constitution  itself. 

I  quote  from  Gordy's  Political  Parties,  Vol.  1, 
page  130: 

' '  The  bill  to  incorporate  a  national  bank  was 
first  introduced  in  the  senate.  When  it  reached 
the  house,  it  was  opposed  by  Madison  with  great 
ability,  on  constitutional  grounds.  He  declared 
that  'the  exercise  of  the  power  asserted  in  the 
bill  involves  all  the  guilt  of  usurpation  and  es 
tablishes  a  precedent  of  interpretation,'  leveling 
all  the  barriers  which  limit  the  powers  of  the 
general  government  and  protect  those  of  the 
State  governments." 

Gordy,  page  131:  "Hamilton  doubtless  be 
lieved,  and  rightly,  that  a  bank  would  be  of  great 
service  to  the  government  in  performing  the 


130          A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON 

duties  imposed  upon  it  by  the  Constitution.  But 
the  political  purposes  to  be  served  by  it  were 
probably  quite  as  important  from  his  point  of 
view.  ^We  rejxmmbci  how  Linwilliii'g~&e~was  to 
TTi'tlillnlrl  frnm  tliQ  nwnr  i  nf  jnnprrtj  a  means 
of  defending  the1  iiibelVe^  cigdt&st^the  violence 
and  turbulence  of  democracy.  Hamilton  doubt 
less  wished  by  the  incorporation  of  a  Bank  to 
array  upon  the  side  of  the  government  all  of  the 
wealthy  men  whose  pecuniary  interests  in  the 
bank  would  give  them  an  interest  in  supporting 
the  government.  But  what  he  probably  wished 
to  accomplish  most  of  all  was  to  bring  into  play 
the  implied  powers.  of  the  Constitution.  " 

Gordy,  ("page  133:  "  Hamilton,  despite  his 
fundamental  allegiance  to  order,  was  devoted 
to  liberty,  but  he  thought  the  centrifugal  tend 
encies  of  society  were  so  powerful  that  liberty 
would  degenerate  into  anarchy  unless  it  should 
be  kept  in  bounds  by  a  strong  government  —  a 
government  in  which  the  intelligent  and  'prop- 
erty  owning  classes  shoulcHfe  given  so  large  a 

be  used  as  a  dike 


Gordy,  page  135  :  '  '  Jefferson  's  opinion  began 
as  follows:  'I  consider  the  foundation  of  the 
Constitution  as  laid  on  this  ground  —  that  all 


A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDEB    HAMILTON          131 

powers  not  delegated  to  the  United  States  by 
the  constitution,  nor  prohibited  by  it  to  the 
States,  are  reserved  to  the  States  or  to  the  peo 
ple.  To  take  a  single  step  beyond  the  boundaries 
thus  specially  drawn  around  the  powers  of 
Congress,  is  to  take  possession  of  a  boundless 
field  of  power  no  longer  susceptible  of  any  defini 
tion/  " 

Gordy,  page  136:  "In  brief,  Jefferson  inter 
preted  this  clause  as  if  it  had  been  written  as 
follows — And  Congress  shall  have  power  to 
pass  all  laws  which  may  be  absolutely  and  in 
dispensably  necessary  for  carrying  into  effect 
the  foregoing  powers. " 

As  to  Hamilton,  Gordy,  page  137,  comments 
as  follows : 

1 1  From  his  point  of  view,  to  prove  the  consti 
tutionality  of  the  bill  providing  for  a  bank,  no 
more  was  necessary  than  to  show  that  a  bank 
would  be  useful  to  the  government  in  borrowing 
money  or  collecting  taxes,  and  that  the  Constitu 
tion  had  not  prohibited  Congress  from  creating 


Yet  Hamilton  did  know  it  to  be  an  actual  fact 


132          A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDEE    HAMILTON 

that  the  federal  convention  had  in  the  most  posi 
tive  manner  flatly  refused  to  grant  that  very 
power  to  congress,  by  a  very  large  majority. 

Gordy,  page  138:  "They  [Jefferson  and 
Madison]  saw  a  plain  connection  between  Ham 
ilton's  speech  in  the  federal  convention  and  his 
financial  policy  and  the  theory  of  constitutional 
interpretation  upon  which  it  was  based.  Upon 
such  facts  as  foundation  for  such  opinions  it 
was  certainly  not  unnatural  for  Jefferson  and 
Madison  (to  say  nothing  of  men  of  less  discern 
ment)  to  conclude  that  Hamilton  and  the  party 
which  recognized  him  as  its  leader  intended  to 
subvert  the  Constitution,  either  openly  or  prac 
tically,  by  interpretation. ' ' 

Gordy,  page  139:  "This  opinion  was 
strengthened  during  the  next  session  of  Con 
gress  when  Hamilton  submitted  to  that  body 
his  report  on  manufactures.  According  to  the 
doctrine  of  that  report,  Congress  has  unlimited 
power  to  do  anything  which  can  be  done  by 
money  to  promote  the  general  welfare. ' ' 

Such  an  interpretation  of  the  Constitution 
conferred  upon  Congress  the  power  which  in  his 
convention  speech  Hamilton  had  declared  ought 


A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON  133 

to  belong  to  it.  According  to  that  speech,  Con 
gress  ought  to  have  the  right  to  pass  laws  on 
any  subject  whatever;  according  to  the  report, 
Congress  had  the  right  to  pass  laws  on  any  sub 
ject  that  requires  the  application  of  money.  No 
wonder  Madison  declared  that  according  to 
that  interpreta^on^be-^V^mment  is  no  longer 
a  limited  one,  possessing  enumerated  powers, 
rme,  subject  to  particular  re- 


strictions. 

Upon  the  subject  of  enumerated  powers  the 
Supreme  Court  has  rendered  a  recent  opinion 
which  is  so  refreshing  that  I  can  not  resist  the 
temptation  to  quote  it.  In  Hodges  vs.  U.  S.,  203 
U.  S.  E.  16,  Justice  Brewer  used  these  w*ords: 
"Notwithstanding  the  adoption  of  these  three 
amendments  the  national  government  still  re 
mains  one  of  enumerated  powers  and  the  tenth 
amendment  which  reads  —  'the  powers  not  dele 
gated  to  the  United  States  by  the  Constitution 
nor  prohibited  by  it  to  the  states  are  reserved 
to  the  states  respectively  or  to  the  people'  is 
not  shorn  of  its  vitality."  To  that  opinion  Jus 
tice  John  Marshall  Harlan  dissented.  What  a 
revival  of  ancient  history  is  contained  in  these 
words!  Justice  Brewer  must  have  found  this 
nugget  of  constitutional  gold  in  the  rubbish  of 


134          A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON 

the  lumber  room  of  judicial  history.  What  was 
he  doing  in  that  room?  Did  he  bear  a  permit 
from  John  Marshall  ?  If  not,  he  was  an  officious 
intruder.  Then,  he  deserves  a  reprimand  for 
such  a  blasphemy  on  the  name  and  fame  of  John 
Marshall. 

The  fo] lowing  very  striking  words  are  taken 
from  MacDonald's  Jacksonian  Democracy: 

Page  77 :  "  The  advocates  of  strict  construc 
tion  in  1828  felt,  though  not  all  of  them  clearly 
perceived,  that  their  opponents  had  shifted  their 
ground,  and  that  instead  of  seeking  the  author 
ity  for  federal  action  in  the  words  of  the  Con 
stitution,  or  in  a  reasonable  implication  there 
from,  loose  construction  had  come  to  mean  the 
right  of  the  Federal  government  to  do  whatever 
was  not  forbidden  by  the  Constitution,  provided 
the  act  was  deemed  to  be  for  the  general  good. 
If  such  a  theory  of  constitutional  construction 
were  to  prevail  and  the  original  notion  of  the 
Constitution  as  a  grant  of  powers,  under  which 
everything  not  granted  was  withheld,  were  to  be 
replaced  by  the  theory  that  everything  not  with 
held  was  granted,  the  federal  government  would 
be  admittedly  supreme,  and  the  reserved  rights 
of  the  states  would  speedily  become  only  a  form 
of  words." 


A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON          135 


From  John  Fiske,  a  Massachusetts  man,  Har 
vard  bred,  it  was  hardly  to  be  expected,  of  all 
the  Sin  who  have  written  about  Hamilton,  the 
mo»just  and  critical  estimate  of  his  public  char 
acter  and  career  and  of  the  aim  of  his  political 
principles.  But  such  is  the  fact,  as  is  clear  from 
his  brilliant  essay  on  Hamilton,  from  which  I 
quote. 

Fiske 's  Essays,  Vol.  1,  "Hamilton,"  page 
115: 

y 

"He  was  a  devoted  friend  to  free  government ; 
not,  however,  to  that  kind  of  free  government 
in  which  the  people  rule,  but  the  kind  in  which 
they  are  ruled  by  an  upper  class,  with  elaborate 
safeguards  against  the  abuse  of  power. ' ' 

Fiske,  page  113:  "He  had  already  pondered 
deeply  on  those  subjects  and  had  already  con 
ceived  the  scheme  of  an  alliance  of  interests  be 
tween  the  federal  government  and  the  moneyed 
class  of  society.  One  of  the  instruments  by 
which  the  alliance  was  to  be  effected  was  a  na 
tional  bank,  which  was  to  be  a  corporation  in 
private  hands,  but  to  some  extent  supported 
and  controlled  by  congress. " 

Fiske,  page  130:  "Every  day  showed  more 
clearly  that  Hamilton's  aim  was  to  insure  the 
stability  of  the  government  through  a  firm 


136          A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDEB    HAMILTON 

alliance  with  capitalists,  and  the  fear  was  nat 
ural  that  such  a  policy,  if  not  held  in  check, 
might  end  in  transforming  the  government  into 
a  plutocracy — that  is  to  say,  a  government  in 
which  political  power  is  monopolized  by  rich 
men  and  employed  in  furthering  their  selfish 
interests  without  regard  to  the  general  welfare 
of  the  people.  Those  who  expressed  such  a  fear 
were  more  prescient  than  their  Federalist  ad 
versaries  believed  them  to  be,  for  now,  after  a 
lapse  of  a  hundred  years,  the  gravest  danger 
that  threatens  us  is  precisely  such  a  plutocracy. 
It  has  been  one  of  our  national  misfortunes  that 
for  three-quarters  of  a  century  the  mere  main 
tenance  of  the  Union  seemed  to  call  for  theories 
which,  when  put  into  operation,  are  very  far 
from  making  a  government  that  is  in  the  fullest 
sense  'of  the  people,  by  the  people,  for  the 
people.' 

"The  only  party  that  ever  extricated  itself 
from  the  dilemma  and  stood  at  one  and  the  same 
time  unflinchingly  for  the  Union  and  against 
paternal  government  in  every  form  was  the 
party  of  Jackson  and  Van  Buren,  between  1830 
and  1845.  But  with  Hamilton  paternal  govern 
ment  was  desirable  not  only  as  a  means  of 
strengthening  the  Union  but  as  an  end  in  itself. 


A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDEK    HAMILTON          137 

He  believed  that  a  part  of  the  people  ought  to 
make  laws  for  the  whole. " 

What  did  Fiske  intend  to  say,  which  he  lacked 
the  moral  courage  to  publish  to  the  world !  Only 
this,  that  Hamilton  meant  that  by  a  national 
bank  he  would  build  up  classes  of  men,  in  busi 
ness  and  in  politics,  who  would  corrupt  the  peo 
ple,  by  money  to  get  office,  and  control  the  gov 
ernment,  and  by  money  corrupt  the  people,  and 
thus  retain  control  of  the  government. 

Why  has  this  unscrupulous  creature  been 
fondled  and  dawled  like  an  infant  in  its  swad 
dling  clothes,  guarded  from  every  wind  that 
blows,  by  the  men  that  pretend  to  write  history 
for  the  American  youth  ?  Why  is  it  that  his  char 
acter,  public  and  private,  has  been  protected 
from  the  shafts  of  truth?  This  very  protection 
to  him  has  been  the  potent  means  of  concealing 
from  the  people  his  iniquitous  doctrine  of  im 
plied  powers.  "Old  Hickory"  understood,  and 
appreciated  to  the  full,  the  extent  of  the  evil 
that  Hamilton  was  spreading  through  our  land. 
The  rugged  old  statesman  had  the  courage  to 
remove  the  deposits  of  the  bank,  thus  destroy 
ing  it.  tVr-A  l/v/KM^O  f>^  fbi**-*fi  ft$7 ': 

That  act  was  mobocratic  and  revolutionary; 


138          A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDEE    HAMILTON 

but  no  man  dared  to  impeach  him.  That  was 
the  only  possible  way  by  which  the  bank  could 
be  "killed"  in  practical  politics. 

The  leaders  of  the  Democratic  party,  blinded 
by  the  ignis  fatuus  of  their  own  principles, 
thought  that  more  completely  to  popularize  our 
system  of  government  in  the  states  would  en 
able  them  to  break  the  force  of  the  doctrine  of 
implied  powers.  Consequently  they  advocated 
new  constitutions  in  the  different  states,  under 
which  the  judiciary  should  be  elective.  The 
Whigs  opposed. 

This  movement  (to  speak  in  general  terms) 
began  about  the  year  1845.  No  matter  what 
may  have  been  its  motive  and  object,  it  never  did 
control  the  Supreme  Court,  nor  should  it  have 
done  so,  though  this  doctrine  of  implied  powers 
has  been  made  a  part  of  the  federal  constitution. 
What  has  been  the  result  of  the  movement? 

The  Democratic  party  owes  its  origin  and  its 
continued  life  to  the  very  nature  of  our  govern 
ment.  The  latter  is  the  mother  of  the  former, 
while  the  Federal,  the  Whig,  and  the  Republican 
parties  have  all  been  drawn  along  different  lines, 
and  represent  entirely  different  purposes  and 
interests.  The  Republican  party  has  ever  stood 
for  money  and  for  power  and  its  exercise  in 


A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDEK    HAMILTON          139 

political  affairs,  under  the  fostering  care  of  its 
godfather,  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States.  And  this  movement,  unintentionally 
acting  against  the  true  interests  and  the  perma 
nent  stability  of  our  dual  form  of  government, 
culminated  in  an  elective  judiciary. 

And  what  has  the  elective  judiciary  done  for 
the  country,  its  patriotism,  its  virtue,  its  hon 
esty,  and  its  purity?  Nothing — absolutely  noth 
ing!  The  movement  was  in  some  measure  due 
also  to  the  desire  of  the  Democratic  leaders  of 
the  day  to  destroy  the  Whig  party,  by  showing 
that  the  Whig  party  had  no  confidence  in  the  peo 
ple.  The  elective  system  has  degraded  and  debased 
the  bar,  debauched  the  judiciary,  made  a  law 
school  of  the  judicial  office,  corrupted  the  poli 
tics  of  the  country,  and  made  the  great  mass  of 
the  people  indifferent  to  the  import  of  current 
events.  Meanwhile  the  greed  of  money,  coupled 
with  indifference  as  to  the  character  of  our 
judges,  is  fast  making  moral  cowardice  a  trait 
of  the  American  people. 

A  bold,  learned,  and  independent  state  judi 
ciary,  beyond  the  touch  of  corporations,  beyond 
the  influence  of  scheming  politicians,  might  have 
had  the  brains  to  note,  and  the  courage  to  ex 
pose,  the  constant  and  increasing  attacks  upon 


140          A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON 

the  federal  constitution  by  the  federal  supreme 
court.  "What  will  an  elective  judiciary  do  to 
protect  the  states  in  the  enjoyment  of  their  re 
served  rights  under  our  dual  system!"  "Wait 
till  after  the  next  election. ' '  And  the  next  elec 
tion,  and  to-morrow,  never  comes. 

May  I  give  a  reason  for  the  faith  that  is  in  me 
on  this  the  most  important  movement  ever 
started  in  American  politics,  the  most  radical, 
the  most  far  reaching,  and  the  most  fraught  with 
evil  to  the  American  people,  with  immediate  dis 
aster  now  at  hand — disaster  to  our  system  of 
government !  It  is  absolutely  clear  to  my  mind, 
if  history  be  a  reliable  guide,  that  its  effect  will 
be  soon  to  turn  over  to  the  federal  supreme  court 
our  entire  government.  That  court,  having  al 
ready  introduced  into  our  political  system  the 
prerogative  of  the  crown,  under  the  doctrine  of 
implied  powers,  will  soon  claim  the  power  and 
the  right  to  control  the  official  action  of  the  chief 
executive  of  our  republic,  will  rob  the  state 
courts  of  all  jurisdiction  over  corporations  by 
a  fiction  of  the  law, — a  fiction  of  the  law  origi 
nated  by  itself  for  that  very  purpose,  and  will 
soon  announce  the  principle  that  this  govern 
ment  is  not  a  compact  between  the  states,  that 
its  sovereignty  does  not  rest  in  the  people  of 


A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON          141 

the  different  states  as  political  bodies,  but  in 
the  federal  government,  whose  powers  are  to  be 
found  enumerated  and  stated  in  the  judicial 
opinions  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States. 

A  state  judiciary,  independent  in  its  origin, 
unamenable  to  current  politics,  unapproachable 
by  corporations  through  their  influence  on  elec 
tions,  as  firm  and  as  fixed  in  office  as  the  judges 
of  the  federal  supreme  court,  would  have  pro 
tected  the  states  from  such  opinions.  But,  over 
come  by  intense  desire  to  retain  office,  they  are 
unable  to  emancipate  themselves  from  the  domi 
nating  power  of  the  wire-puller  and  the  political 
boss.  The  result:  the  office  has  become  politi 
cal  in  its  tenure,  and  the  state  judges  themselves 
are  politicians, — a  condition  so  disastrous  to  the 
principles  of  the  old  Democratic  party  that  we 
are  confronted  with  this  serious  question,  Has 
the  Democratic  party  any  principle?  At  the 
time  that  we  deplore  this  result  we  more  greatly 
lament  the  other,  that  the  state  governments  are 
at  last  entirely  at  the  will  of  the  federal  supreme 
court,  by  whose  decisions  every  point  now 
mooted  in  a  state  court  can  easily  be  made  a  fed 
eral  question.  This  means  that  the  ultimate 
jurisdiction  of  the  case  is  in  the  federal  courts. 


142          A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON 

What  is  to  be  the  end  of  this  destruction 
of  state  sovereignty  the  finite  mind  of  man  may 
not  foresee.  But  if  history  does  repeat  itself, 
the  revolution  of  1776,  in  its  fundamental  prin 
ciples,  will  have  to  be  fought  again.  If  the  act 
of  Jackson  was  mobocratic  in  its  nature,  as  it 
unquestionably  was,  it  was  a  mob  of  one  man 
who  had  the  courage  of  his  conviction.  If  he 
broke  down  the  doctrine  of  implied  powers  in 
that  instance,  he  could  not  get  at  the  federal  su 
preme  court  in  any  other  way,  the  court  that  has 
maintained  the  doctrine  of  implied  powers  from 
that  day  to  the  present.  Who  will  lead  the 
11  mob"  when  it  again  undertakes  to  rid  our 
courts  of  this  violent  usurpation  of  rights  that 
do  not  belong  to  the  United  States  through  any 
principle  ? 

But  the  present  condition  of  affairs  in  our 
states  courts  and  in  our  practical  politics  may 
not  remain  in  statu  quo — they  must  progress, 
developing  along  present  lines,  unless  arrested 
and  thown  back  to  the  Constitution.  Can  the 
present  condition  result  in  any  movement  that 
will  not  inevitably  produce  a  "mob"  or  a  revo 
lution?  Mobs  when  successful  become  known  in 
history  as  revolutions;  when  unsuccessful,  as 
unlawful  assemblies. 


A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDEK    HAMILTON          143 

"When  considered  from  the  standpoint  of  his 
tory,  why  should  an  American  or  an  Englishman 
stand  aghast,  looking  with  horror  at  such  an 
assembly  of  men  determined  to  right  their 
wrongs  and  defend  their  rights  and  protect 
their  liberties?  For  what  is  the  history  of  the 
Anglo-Saxon  race,  from  the  dawning  of  the  day 
when  it  emerged  from  the  Black  Forest  of  Ger 
many  to  the  present  time,  but  the  history  of  a 
mob? 

Let  us  take  a  passing  glance  at  the  well-estab 
lished  facts  of  recorded  history.  The  Barons  at 
Eunnymede  were  a  mob ;  then  there  was  the  be 
ginning  of  government  according  to  law  enacted 
by  a  legislative  assembly.  Simon  de  Montfort 
led  a  mob ;  then  there  was  the  beginning  of  the 
English  House  of  Commons;  Wat  Tyler  led  a 
mob ;  then  there  was  the  origin  of  the  great  com 
mon  people — a  people  known  only  to  the  Eng 
lish-speaking  race.  Charles  I  was  beheaded  by  a 
mob,  and  the  divine  right  of  kings  passed  away, 
never  again  to  be  known  in  human  history,  and 
with  it  prerogative  of  kings.  Oliver  Cromwell 
led  a  mob;  then  followed  the  first  assertion  of 
all  true  governmental  principles  by  the  common 
people — that  government  rests  on  the  consent 
of  the  governed,  from  which  comes  that  other 


144          A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDEE    HAMILTON 

great  principle,  the  personality  of  man,  which 
is  abroad  in  the  world  to-day.  The  convention 
parliament  was  a  mob  which  drove  King  James 
from  England ;  then  the  English  monarchy  be 
came  a  constitutional  government,  and  the  pow 
ers  and  rights  of  the  people  have  been  steadily 
increasing  from  that  day  to  this.  A  mob  threw 
tea  into  Boston  harbor;  then  began  the  Ameri 
can  Eevolution.  George  Washington  led  a  mob ; 
and  the  American  colonies  became  sovereign 
states.  The  Declaration  of  Independence  was 
promulgated  by  a  mob,  and  its  voice  is  yet  being 
heard,  re-echoing  around  the  globe,  giving  vital 
ity  to  the  dead  rights  of  the  dead.  Abraham 
Lincoln  led  a  mob,  and,  thanks  be  to  Almighty 
God,  not  a  human  being  on  the  habitable  globe 
that  speaks  the  English  language  as  his  native 
tongue  is  a  slave  to-day. 

The  federal  courts  have  carried  their  enforce 
ment  of  Hamilton's  principles  far  enough.  The 
American  people  have  had  enough  of  the  bril 
liant  bastard. 


CHAPTER  VII 

The  doctrine  of  state  rights  is  beginning  once 
more  to  show  its  face  to  the  American  people. 
One  may  hear  its  utterance  on  many  unexpected 
occasions,  from  many  men  who  were  scarcely 
expected  to  touch  that  question  in  their  public 
utterances.  The  doctrine  of  state  sovereignty 
has  not  been  wholly  overthrown;  home  rule  in 
principle  is  not  yet  dead.  An  elective  judiciary 
may  not  be  trusted.  The  people  must  look  to 
themselves  for  the  protection  of  their  rights. 
God  in  His  providence  will  yet  send  this  people 
a  leader  who  will  lead  them  from  their  house  of 
bondage  and  wrest  our  great  federal  constitu 
tion  from  the  treasonable  grasp  of  the  federal 
supreme  court  of  the  United  States  and  teach 
the  members  of  that  court  the  true  meaning  of 
their  oath  of  office.  Why  does  the  possession 
of  power,  growing  by  what  it  feeds  on,  so  debase 
the  human  character,  so  obscure  the  boundaries 
between  right  and  wrong,  and  so  blunt  the  hu 
man  conscience!  May  man  never  be  trusted? 
Must  he  always  be  watched?  "Eternal  vigi 
lance  is  the  price  of  liber ty."  History  does  re- 

145 


146          A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON 

peat  itself.  If  the  states  have  their  reserved 
rights,  then  the  doctrine  of  implied  powers  has 
no  place  under  a  written  constitution.  If  the 
doctrine  of  implied  powers  is  correct,  then  the 
states  will,  ex  necessitate  rei,  be  compelled  to 
exercise  themselves  as  subordinate  authorities— 
to  quote  Hamilton,  a  sort  of  local  police, — sine 
qua  non.  Order  will  yet  come  out  of  all  this  con 
fusion,  although  we  read  in  our  public  prints 
of  one  distinguished  politician  publicly  advocat 
ing  government  through  the  courts,  and  of  an 
other  advocating  governmental  control  and  own 
ership  of  railroads,  which  have  already  blotted 
state  lines  out  of  existence.  These  words  by 
Franklin  in  referring  to  the  federal  constitu 
tion  no  longer  seem  to  be  the  pessimistic  utter 
ance  of  an  old  man  who  had  struggled  in  vain 
for  his  liberty:  "I  am  apprehensive,  there 
fore, — perhaps  too  apprehensive, — that  the  gov 
ernment  of  these  states  may  in  future  times  end 
in  a  monarchy. "  Admit  the  existence  of  gov 
ernment  through  the  courts,  in  what  would  the 
stability  of  it  consist?  In  the  opinion  of  the 
judges  then  forming  the  court  ?  In  the  opinions 
of  subsequent  judges  overruling  the  opinions  of 
their  predecessors?  They  would  have  the  right 
to  overrule  their  predecessors'  opinions.  The 


A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON          147 

government  would  be  overturned.  How?  By 
the  stroke  of  a  pen  or  by  a  few  uttered  words. 

Suppose  the  federal  government  takes  all  the 
railroads  by  purchase  or  assumes  control  of 
them  under  the  interstate  commerce  clause  in 
the  Constitution,  which  it  has  the  right  to  do  if 
this  doctrine  of  implied  powers  is  correct,  what 
would  be  the  result  in  this  the  first  quarter  of 
the  present  century!  In  the  interests  of  peace 
and  good  government  the  executive  would  sim 
ply  announce  to  this  people,  as  Cromwell  an 
nounced  to  his  people,  that  it  was  best  for  him  to 
continue  in  office,  then  proclaim  himself  pro 
tector  of  the  United  States.  One  banquet,  in 
jest,  has  already  been  held  to  proclaim  the  com 
ing  of  our  first  king.  ' '  Coming  events  cast  their 
shadows  before/'  and  "many  a  true  word  is 
spoken  in  jest." 

What  can  prevent  the  absolute  consolidation 
of  our  government  if  the  government  should 
control  all  our  railroads?  Centralization  of  all 
governmental  power  at  Washington  would  be 
an  actual  necessity  to  this  people,  because  in 
terstate  roads  would  not  alone  be  involved,  but 
all  the  roads,  even  those  strictly  and  geographi 
cally  confined  to  a  state,  would  come  within  the 
grasp  of  this  all-powerful  necessity.  What 


148          A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON 

would  that  form  of  government  be  but  a  mon 
archy,  with  a  thin  transparent  varnish  of  de 
mocracy,  so  called,  or  republicanism,  in  name,  but 
not  in  reality?  This  interstate  clause  is  the  only 
clause  in  the  federal  constitution  from  which  the 
doctrine  of  implied  powers  could  be  deduced 
or  applied  with  any  pretense  to  justification  in 
even  illogical  argument.  And  this  clause  will 
yet  be  invoked  in  aid  of  this  scheme  when  the 
people  have  been  more  corrupted  by  money  and 
when  they  have  become  more  indifferent  to  the 
preservation  of  their  political  rights  and  their 
personal  liberties  because  they  have  money  both 
in  their  pockets  and  in  the  banks. 

John  Fiske,  in  his  Critical  Periods  of  Ameri 
can  History,  page  237,  utters  these  prophetic 
words : 

"Our  federal  government  has  indeed  shown 
a  strong  tendency  to  encroach  upon  the  province 
of  the  state  governments,  especially  since  our 
late  civil  war.  Too  much  centralization  is  our 
danger  to-day,  as  the  weakness  of  the  federal 
tie  was  our  danger  a  century  ago.  The  rule 
of  the  Federalist  party  was  needed  in  1789, 
as  the  rule  of  the  Eepublican  party  was  needed 
in  1861,  to  put  a  curb  upon  centrifugal  tend- 


A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDEE    HAMILTON  149 

encies.  But  after  federalism  had  fairly  done  its 
great  work,  at  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  it  was  well  that  the  administration  of 
our  national  affairs  should  pass  into  the  hands 
of  the  party  to  which  Thomas  Jefferson  and 
Samuel  Adams  belonged  and  which  Madison,  in 
his  calm,  statesmanlike  wisdom,  had  come  to 
join.  And  now  that  in  our  own  day  the  disrup 
tive  powers  have  been  even  more  thoroughly  and 
effectually  overcome,  it  is  time  for  the  principles 
of  that  party  to  be  reasserted  with  fresh  em 
phasis.  If  the  day  should  ever  arrive  (which 
God  forbid)  when  the  people  of  the  different 
parts  of  our  country  shall  allow  their  local  af 
fairs  to  be  administered  by  prefects  sent  from 
Washington,  and  when  the  self-government  of 
the  states  shall  have  been  so  far  lost  as  that  of 
the  departments  of  France,  or  even  so  far  as 
that  of  the  counties  of  England, — on  that  day 
the  progressive  political  career  of  the  American 
people  will  have  come  to  an  end  and  the  hopes 
that  have  been  built  upon  it  for  the  future  hap 
piness  and  prosperity  of  mankind  will  be 
wrecked  forever. " 

Let  the  doctrine  of  implied  powers,  govern 
ment  through  the  courts,  and  the  ownership  of 


150          A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDEE    HAMILTON 

the  railroads  by  the  government, — a  revival  and 
a  combination  of  Cicero,  Caesar  and  Claudius,— 
unite  their  influence,  money,  and  power,  and 
that  day  will  be  here.  And  is  it  not  to  the  mone 
tary  interests  of  these  three  forces  to  combine! 
And  when  combined,  who  may  resist  them  ?  Only 
a  revolution  more  terrible  than  the  French  Revo 
lution.  And  if  the  federal  supreme  court  is  true 
to  itself,  to  Alexander  Hamilton,  and  to  John 
Marshall,  such  a  combination  would  be  sus 
tained  by  that  court.  Its  love  of  power,  coupled 
with  the  knowledge  that  judges  cannot  be  im 
peached  and  justly  punished  for  opinions  judi 
cially  uttered,  would  nerve  them  to  be  true  to 
their  past  and  to  their  idols.  Pertinent  to  this 
subject,  George  Mason  (Madison  Papers,  Vol.  2, 
page  1065)  uttered  these  wise  and  thoughtful 
words  in  the  convention :  ' '  From  the  nature  of 
man,  we  may  be  sure  that  those  who  have  power 
in  their  hands  will  not  give  it  up  while  they  can 
retain  it.  On  the  contrary,  we  know  that  they 
will  always,  when  they  can,  rather  increase  it. ' ' 
I  believe  Charles  V  is  the  only  monarch  known 
to  history  that  ever  resigned  a  crown. 

The  English  origin  of  the  doctrine  of  implied 
powers  is  an  established  fact  in  English  his 
tory.  Its  American  origin  is  too  well  known  to 


A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDEE    HAMILTON  151 

justify  a  current  comment  as  to  the  date  of  its 
beginning.  We  know  why  it  was  transplanted 
from  England  and  brought  to  this  country ;  we 
know  the  object  of  its  resurrection  from  dead 
history.  We  know  what  it  has  done  and  what 
it  is  now  in  the  free  country  whose  noble  men  in 
1776  fought,  bled,  and  died  that  it  might  never 
again  assert  itself  in  our  government.  I  quote 
from  Gordy's  Political  Parties,  Vol.  II,  page  1: 

"The  ship  of  state  was  driving  before  a  ter 
rible  storm  when  James  Madison  took  the  helm 
in  1809. 

"The  Kepublicans  had  used  their  weapon  of 
peace  against  France  and  England  and  it  had 
broken  in  their  hands.  They  had  gained  control 
of  the  government  because  of  their  champion 
ship  of  the  liberty  of  the  individual,  because  of 
their  opposition  to  every  measure  that  tended  to 
increase  the  powers  of  the  general  government 
at  the  expense  of  those  of  the  states.  To  pro 
tect  the  liberty  of  the  individual  at  all  hazards, 
to  vindicate  the  capacity  of  the  people  to  govern 
themselves,  was  their  special  mission.  Could 
they  accomplish  their  mission  and  at  the  same 
time  act  on  the  theory  that  the  United  States 
was  a  nation !  Were  the  liberty  of  the  individual 


152          A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDEK    HAMILTON 

and  the  centralization  of  power  required  by  the 
assertion  of  nationality  compatible?  The  Re 
publicans  [now  Democrats]  had  maintained  that 
they  were  not.  Hence  their  theory  of  the  central 
government — the  foreign  branch  of  our  govern 
mental  system,  the  domestic  branch  being  vested 
in  the  government  of  the  states. " 

Bead  between  the  lines,  and  you  will  have 
what  this  author  ought  to  have  written.  This 
horrible  and  imperial  doctrine  was  then  under 
stood,  feared,  denounced,  and  fought  success 
fully  before  the  people;  but  that  contest  could 
not  enter  the  federal  supreme  court  and  oust 
from  office  judges  who  were  striving  to  build  up 
a  government  outside  the  Constitution  that 
would  control  at  their  despotic  will  both  the  for 
eign  and  the  domestic  branches  of  our  dual  sys 
tem.  Their  constant  assertion  of  this  doc 
trine  is  nothing  less  than  an  open  declaration 
of  war  against  our  dual  system  of  government, 
against  the  rights  of  our  citizens  under  the  sov 
ereignty  of  the  states,  against  the  rights  of  the 
states  as  political  sovereignties  and  as  original 
parties  to  the  federal  compact  as  fixed  by  the 
federal  constitution  and  as  explained  by  the  de 
bates  of  the  federal  convention.  But  a  day  of 
reckoning  will  come.  "The  mills  of  the  gods 


A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON          153 

grind  slowly,  but  they  grind  exceeding  small.7' 
The  object  of  this  doctrine  as  explained  by  its 
introduction  into  our  dual  system  was  simply 
to  add  to  the  powers  of  the  federal  government 
—to  which  no  limit  could  be  fixed  if  submitted  to 
by  the  states;  powers  so  added  in  the  future 
would  destroy  all  the  rights  of  the  states,  unless 
checked  in  its  growth,  fixed  in  its  limitations, 
and  thoroughly  understood  in  its  application, 
both  in  political  and  in  fiscal  affairs.  What  pow 
ers  have  the  states  to  check  its  growth  or  to  fix 
its  limitations!  None — absolutely  none.  Its 
growth,  development,  limitations,  and  applica 
tions  depend  exclusively  upon  the  opinions  of 
the  federal  supreme  court,  and  that  court,  one 
of  the  three  departments  into  which  our  system 
of  government  is  divided,  is  not  amenable  to 
either  the  executive  or  the  legislative  depart 
ment.  The  will  of  the  federal  supreme  court  is 
the  law.  Its  opinions  are  the  evidences  of  the 
operation  of  the  doctrine  of  implied  powers. 

Before  quoting  from  Justice  Gray's  most  re 
markable  opinion  in  Quillard  vs.  Greenman 
(Vol.  110,  U.  S.  K.,  page  421),  in  many  points 
possibly  the  most  remarkable  ever  given  to  the 
country  by  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States  (it  goes  to  the  very  verge  of  pronouncing 
the  rights  of  the  states  and  their  citizens  as 


154          A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON 

merely  the  spontaneous  and  unmerited  gifts  of 
the  federal  government,  which  that  government 
has  the  right  to  withhold  at  any  time,  or  to  pro 
hibit  the  enjoyment  and  exercise  thereof  at  its 
discretion),  I  quote  three  articles  of  the  Consti 
tution  itself : 

' '  The  Constitution  and  the  laws  of  the  United 
States  which  shall  be  made  in  pursuance  thereof 
—shall  be  the  supreme  law  of  the  land. ' ' 

1 '  The  enumeration  in  the  Constitution  of  cer 
tain  rights  shall  not  be  construed  to  deny  or  dis 
parage  others  retained  by  the  people." 

"The  powers  not  delegated  to  the  United 
States  by  the  Constitution  nor  prohibited  by  it 
to  the  States  are  reserved  to  the  states  respect 
ively  or  to  the  people. ' ' 

I  here  offer  a  few  definitions  of  the  word  * '  dis 
parage,  "  used  in  the  second  of  the  articles  just 
quoted,  as  given  by  Webster: 

"To  dishonor  by  a  comparison  with  what  is 
inferior,  to  lower  in  rank  or  estimation ;  to  un 
dervalue  ;  to  bring  reproach  on ;  to  vilify ;  to  de 
base;  syn. — to  decry;  depreciate;  undervalue; 
vilify;  reproach;  detract  from;  derogate  from; 
degrade. ' ' 

It  would  indeed  be  a  curiosity  in  judicial  logic 


A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDEE    HAMILTON  155 

if  the  federal  supreme  court  would  undertake  to 
reconcile  some  of  its  opinions  with  both  these 
articles  in  the  same  argument.  I  have  frequently 
seen  distant  references  to  Art.  10  in  the  courts7 
opinions,  but  never  once  to  Art.  9,  so  far  as  I 
now  recollect, — and  surely  I  would  not  have  for 
gotten  if  the  opinion  had  made  the  most  distant 
allusion  to  the  use  and  force  of  that  word — Dis 
parage. 

Vol.  110,  U.  S.  E.,  page  438 :  " No  question  of 
the  scope  and  extent  of  the  implied  powers  of 
Congress  under  the  Constitution  can  be  satisfac 
torily  discussed  without  repeating  much  of  the 
reasoning  of  Chief  Justice  Marshall  in  the  great 
judgment  in  McCullough  vs.  Maryland  (4 
Wheat.  316),  by  which  the  power  of  Congress 
to  incorporate  a  bank  was  demonstrated  and 
affirmed,  notwithstanding  the  Constitution 
does  not  enumerate,  among  the  powers  granted, 
that  of  establishing  a  bank  or  creating  a  cor 
poration." 

Chief  Justice  Marshall  did  not  demonstrate— 
nor  could  he  demonstrate — that  Congress  under 
the  Constitution  had  the  power  to  create  a  bank 
or  any  other  corporation,  for  that  power  was 
positively  refused  to  Congress  by  a  very  large 


156          A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDEB    HAMILTON 

majority,  and  Chief  Justice  Marshall  never  was 
other  than  the  exponent  or  expositor  on  the 
bench  of  Alexander  Hamilton's  English,  uncon 
stitutional  and  radical  political  opinions.  This 
statement  by  Justice  Gray  is  a  perfect  illustra 
tion  of  the  intellectual  cowardice  and  moral 
slavery  of  the  court  to  Hamilton's  and  to  Mar 
shall's  political  opinions.  How  could  John  Mar 
shall  demonstrate  that  to  be  a  fact  which  was  not 
true — affirm  the  existence  of  a  right  which  had 
been  refused  and  the  exercise  of  a  power  posi 
tively  and  indisputedly  withheld?  Will  that 
court  never  do  its  own  thinking!  Some  text 
writers  have  gone  to  far  as  to  excuse  some  of 
the  erroneous  opinions  on  the  theory  that  the 
Madison  Papers  had  not  then  been  published, 
consequently  that  Gray  was  unacquainted  with 
the  important  facts  contained  in  them  that  bore 
directly  on  his  opinions.  But  possibly  Justice 
Gray  had  read  them.  If  he  had,  they  made  no 
impression  on  his  mind. 

Justice  Gray  makes  this  quotation  from  the 
Chief  Justice's  opinion  in  the  McCullough- 
Maryland  case:  "Let  the  end  be  legitimate,  let 
it  be  within  the  scope  of  the  Constitution,  and 
all  means  which  are  appropriate,  which  are 
plainly  adapted  to  that  end,  which  are  not  pro- 


A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON          157 

hibited*  but  consist  with  the  letter  and  spirit  of 
the  Constitution,  are  constitutional." 

Analyze  the  loose  language  of  that  sentence. 
Who  is  to  be  the  judge  of  the  scope  of  the  Con 
stitution  and  define  that  compact!  The  facts 
which  underlie  its  formation  or  the  opinion  of 
a  court  that  disregards  those  facts — in  fact,  log 
ically  denies  their  existence.  "Let  the  end  be 
legitimate. "  Legitimate  for  what?  For  a  pur 
pose  not  granted,  but  prohibited,  to  Congress. 
Again,  the  opinion  is  the  sole  source  from  which 
to  ascertain  if  that  end  be  legitimate.  "*  *  * 
and  all  means  which  are  appropriate,  which  are 
plainly  adapted  to  that  end,  w^hich  are  not  pro 
hibited  *  *  *  »  Alexander  Hamilton  knew 
that  the  right  and  the  power  to  create  a  bank 
had  been  most  positively  prohibited  to  congress 
by  a  large  majority  of  the  states.  If  appro 
priate,  and  plainly  adapted  to  that  end,  how  may 
congress  usurp  the  power  to  create  a  bank,  and 
John  Marshall  decide  it  to  be  constitutional, 
when  it  had  been  prohibited!  This  instance  is 
not  the  only  one  in  Marshall 's  political  opinions 
in  which,  blindly  following  Hamilton,  his  argu 
ment  logically  refutes  itself. 

After  referring  to  Elliott's  Debates  and  the 
Madison  Papers,  Judge  Gray  concludes  the 

"Italics  are  mine. — F.  T.  F. 


158          A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON 

paragraph  of  his  argument  to  which  I  have  re 
ferred  with  this  remarkable  statement: 

"As  an  illustration  of  the  danger  of  giving 
too  much  weight,  upon  such  a  question,  to  the 
debates  and  votes  in  the  Convention,  it  may  also 
be  observed  that  propositions  to  authorize  Con 
gress  to  grant  charters  of  incorporation  for 
national  objects  were  strongly  opposed,  espe 
cially  as  regarded  banks,  and  defeated.  The 
power  of  Congress  to  emit  bills  of  credit  as  well 
as  to  incorporate  national  banks  is  now  clearly 
established  by  decisions  to  which  we  shall 
presently  refer. " 

If  the  proposition  to  incorporate  a  bank  was 
defeated,  where  did  the  power  come  from?  It 
was  enacted,  enumerated,  and  granted  by  Alex 
ander  Hamilton;  it  was  adopted  and  approved 
by  John  Marshall,  and  the  decisions  to  which 
Justice  Gray  shall  refer  wei^e  each  and  all  de 
livered  after  "Old  Hickory"  was  dead  and 
buried. 

What  is  the  danger  in  referring  to  the  de 
bates  and  votes  in  the  federal  convention  that 
formed  the  Constitution?  Can  a  constitutional 
question  that  relates  to  the  powers  of  govern- 


A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDEK    HAMILTON  159 

ment  under  a  written  constitution  be  correctly 
decided  unless  the  consideration  of  that  question 
is  based  on  the  facts  of  the  history  from  which 
it  springs  and  from  which  it  gets  its  life, — its 
privilege  and  its  authority  to  do  this  act  or  that, 
or  to  pass  this  law  or  that?  The  facts  of  his 
tory  as  recorded  in  the  Madison  Papers  are  the 
womb  from  which  the  constitution  was  born. 
They,  and  only  they,  are  its  unerring  interpre 
ters.  And  why  have  they  not  been  consulted  and 
followed  as  a  guide  by  the  federal  supreme 
court!  Because  they  would  have  checked  the  in 
crease  of  the  court's  judicial  power  and  su 
premacy  and  have  stopped  the  usurpations  of 
jurisdiction  of  matter  and  things  which  of  right 
belonged  to  the  states.  Why  did  Congress  not 
create  a  bank — a  national  bank — after  "Old 
Hickory"  removed  the  deposits,  until  after  the 
war  between  the  states,  if  a  bank  was  legitimate, 
appropriate,  within  the  scope  of  the  Constitu 
tion,  and  plainly  adapted  to  some  good  end? 
Johnston,  in  American  Politics,  page  124,  gives 
the  reason  for  the  removal  of  the  deposits, 
among  them,  "that  the  bank's  funds  had  been 
largely  used  for  political  purposes,"  "that  its 
four  government  directors  had  been  systematic 
ally  kept  from  knowledge  of  its  management," 


160  A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON 

and,  on  page  126,  * '  that  the  majority  report  com 
plained  that  the  powers  of  the  committee  had 
been  so  restricted  by  the  bank  that  a  full  investi 
gation  had  been  impossible. " 

One  more  citation  from  Justice  Gray,  p.  450 : 

"To  quote  once  more  from  the  judgment 
in  McCullough  vs.  Maryland,  'Where  the  law 
is  not  prohibited  and  is  really  calculated  to  ef 
fect  any  of  the  objects  entrusted  to  the  govern 
ment,  to  undertake  here  to  inquire  into  the  de 
gree  of  its  necessity  would  be  to  pass  the  line 
which  circumscribes  the  judicial  department  and 
to  tread  on  legislative  ground. ' 

Here  is  a  complete  and  indisputable  refuta 
tion  of  Chief  Justice  Marshall's  entire  argu 
ment,  for,  as  the  power  to  charter  a  bank  was 
positively  prohibited  to  Congress,  its  necessity 
could  not  be  inquired  into.  What  more  can  a 
strict  constructionist  demand  than  this  state 
ment?  John  Marshall  assumed  himself  to  be  a 
congress  by  his  judgment.  This  celebrated  de 
cision  was  rendered  in  the  year  1819.  Jackson 
removed  the  deposits  in  the  year  1833,  and  by 
that  act  repealed  John  Marshall's  judicial  legis- 


A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON          161 

lative  enactment.  John  Marshall  died  in  the 
year  1835.  Andrew  Jackson  by  his  heroic  act 
usurped  less  power  and  authority  than  did 
John  Marshall  by  his  legislative  enactment.  The 
former  ended  where  it  began;  the  baleful  in 
fluence  of  the  latter  still  survives. 

Why  did  the  government  not  need  a  bank  in 
those  many  and  turbulent  years  after  the  old 
bank  was  blotted  out  of  existence  ?  Did  not  poli- 
ticians  need  money!  Did  not  the  government 
need  a  corruption  fund  to  give  power  and  in 
fluence  to  the  wealthy  classes  and  to  buy  offices 
for  the  Federalists  throughout  the  land?  What 
was  the  doctrine  of  implied  powers  (a  political 
bastard  like  its  father;  but,  unlike  its  father,  it 
knew  its  father)  doing  during  all  these  years? 
Was  it  strengthening  its  vital  forces  by  that  long' 
rest! 

It  is  refreshing  to  turn  from  such  judicial 
stuff  as  the  argument  of  Justice  Gray,  which  the 
court  allowed  to  go  forth  to  the  bar  as  its  opin 
ion,  to  the  bold,  manly,  powerful,  and  patriotic 
dissenting  opinion  of  Justice  Field,  of  which 
the  opening  sentence  is  as  follows:  "From  the 
judgment  of  the  court  in  this  case,  and  from  all 
the  positions  advanced  in  its  support,  I  dis 
sent.  "  Another  quotation:  "There  will  be 


162          A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDEB    HAMILTON 

many  who  will  adhere  to  the  teachings  and  abide 
by  the  faith  of  their  fathers. ' '  Possibly  this  man 
had  old-fashioned  Calvinistic  blood  in  his  veins. 
These  questions  are  sufficient  to  this  argu 
ment.  They  expose  the  ambition  and  the  object 
of  Hamilton's  bank  project  and  Marshall's  ex 
position  of  this  his  imported  doctrine. 

"But  [Field,  U.  S.  K.,  p.  466]  beyond  and 
above  all  the  objections  which  I  have  stated  to 
the  decision  recognizing  a  power  in  Congress 
to  impart  the  legal  tender  quality  to  the  notes 
of  the  government,  is  my  objection  to  the  rule 
of  construction  adopted  by  the  court  to  reach  its 
conclusions,  a  rule  which  fully  carried  out  would 
change  the  whole  nature  of  our  Constitution  and 
break  down  the  barriers  which  separate  a  gov 
ernment  of  limited  from  one  of  unlimited 
powers. 

"When  the  Constitution  came  before  the  con 
ventions  of  the  several  States  for  adoption,  ap- 
prehension  existed  that  other  powers  than  those 
designated  might  be  claime3,~an"3~it  led  to  the 
fest-4-cn  amcndmonto. — When  tties&were  pre 
sented  to  the  States  they  were  preceded  by  a 
preamble,  stating  that  the  conventions  of  a  num 
ber  of  the  States  had  at  the  time  of  adopting  the 


A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON          163 

Constitution  expressed  a  desire,  'in  order  to 
prevent  misconception  or  abuse  of  its  powers 
that  further  declatory  and  restrictive  clauses 
should  be  added. '  One  of  them  is  found  in  the 
Tenth  Amendment,  which  declares  that  'the 
powers  not  delegated  to  the  United  States  by  the 
Constitution,  nor  prohibited  by  it  to  the  States, 
are  reserved  to  the  States  respectively  or  to  the 
people.'  The  framers  of  the  Constitution,  as 
I  have  said,  were  profoundly  impressed  with  the 
evils  which  had  resulted  from  the  vicious  legis 
lation  of  the  States  making  notes  legal  tender, 
and  they  determined  that  such  a  power  should 
not  exist  any  longer.  They  therefore  prohibited 
the  States  from  exercising  it,  and  they  refused 
to  grant  it  to  the  new  government  that  they  had 
created.  Of  what  purpose  is  it  then  to  refer  to 
the  exercise  of  the  power  by  the  absolute  or  by 
the  limited  governments  of  Europe  or  by  the 
States  previous  to  our  Constitution?  Congress 
can  exercise  no  power  ~by  virtue,  of  any  sup 
posed  inherent  sovereignty  in  the  general  gov 
ernment.*  Indeed,  it  may  be  doubted  whether 
the  power  can  be  correctly  said  to  appertain  to 
sovereignty  in  any  proper  sense  as  an  attribute 
of  an  independent  political  community.  The 
power  to  commit  violence,  perpetuate  injustice, 

*Italics  are  mine. — F.  T.  F. 


164          A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON 

take  private  property  by  force  without  compen 
sation  to  the  owner,  and  compel  the  receipt  of 
promises  to  pay  in  place  of  money,  may  be  exer 
cised,  as  it  often  has  been,  by  irresponsible  au 
thority  ;  but  it  can  not  be  considered  as  belong 
ing  to  a  government  founded  upon  law.  But  be 
that  as  it  may,  there  is  no  such  thing  as  a  power 
of  inherent  sovereignty  in  the  government  of  the 
United  States.  It  is  a  government  of  delegated 
powers,  supreme  within  its  prescribed  sphere, 
but  powerless  outside  of  it.  In  this  country  sov 
ereignty  resides  in  the  people,  and  Congress  can 
exercise  no  power  which  they  have  not,  by  their 
Constitution,  entrusted  to  it;  all  else  is  with 
held* 

"It  seems,  however,  to  be  supposed  that,  as 
the  power  was  taken  from  the  States,  it  could 
not  have  been  intended  that  it  should  disappear 
entirely,  and  therefore  it  must  in  some  way  ad 
here  to  the  general  government,  notwithstand 
ing  the  Tenth  Amendment  and  the  nature  of  the 
Constitution. 

"The  doctrine,  that  a  power  not  expressly 
forbidden  may  be  exercised,  would,  as  I  have 
observed,  change  the  character  of  our  govern 
ment.  If  I  have  read  the  Constitution  aright, 
if  there  is  any  weight  to  be  given  to  the  uniform 

*  Italics  are  mine. — F.  T.  F. 


A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON          165 

teachings  of  our  great  jurists  and  of  commen 
taries  previous  to  the  late  civil  war,  the  true 
doctrine  is  the  very  opposite  of  this*  If  the 
power  is  not  in  terms  granted,  and  is  not  neces 
sary  and  proper  for  the  exercise  of  a  power 
which  is  thus  granted,  it  does  not  exist.  And  in 
determining  what  measures  may  be  adopted  in 
executing  the  powers  granted,  Chief  Justice 
Marshal]  declares  that  they  must  be  appropriate, 
plainly  adapted  to  the  end,  not  prohibited,  and 
consistent  ivith  the  letter  and  spirit  of  the  Con 
stitution.^  Now,  all  through  that  instrument  we 
find  limitations  upon  the  power,  both  of  the 
general  government  and  the  State  governments, 
so  as  to  prevent  oppression  and  injustice. " 

Comment  on  this  master-argument  is  unneces 
sary.  Discussion  will  not  strengthen  its  force ; 
beyond  all  doubt  the  argument  is  the  ablest  in 
behalf  of  strict  construction  ever  made  in  this 
country  by  judge,  lawyer,  or  statesman.  It  does 
not  refute  itself,  as  do  so  many  of  John  Mar 
shall's  opinions,  when  critically  analyzed. 

Take  the  conclusion  reached  by  Justice  Gray 
and  accepted  by  the  court  as  law,  constitutional 

*Italics    are    mine. — F.    T.    F.  fltalics    are    Justice 

Fields'. 


166          A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON 

law  in  this  country,  which  pretends  to  have  a 
written  constitution,  and  what  is  it?  Only  this : 
any  power  or  authority  or  right  exercised,  or 
claimed  to  be  exercised,  by  right  in  any  foreign 
land,  under  its  form  of  government,  unless  each 
and  all  were  expressly  denied  hac  verba  to  our 
government,  federal  and  state,  by  our  Constitu 
tion,  can  be  constitutionally  exercised  by  our 
government,  and  a  law  passed  by  congress  for 
that  purpose  is  constitutional  by  virtue  of  the 
doctrine  of  implied  powers.  Neither  Charles  I 
nor  James  ever  stretched  their  prerogatives  as 
king  of  England  further  than  did  Justice  Gray 
this  English  doctrine  of  "implied  powers, "  so 
called  in  mock  deference  to  our  written  Constitu 
tion,  and  into  which  he  injected  by  his  argu 
ment  and  illustrations  the  customs  and  powers 
of  foreign  countries  and  their  governments.  As 
I  have  said,  the  doctrine  of  state  rights  is  once 
more  beginning  to  attract  the  attention  of  our 
public  men.  Soon  it  will  begin  to  disturb  our 
political  affairs.  Although  the  stiletto  of  the 
judicial  assassin  has  been  thrust  into  its  back 
again  and  again,  still  it  lives  after  its  long  rest. 
Its  next  conflict  will  be  with  the  doctrine  of  im 
plied  powers. 

Upon  the  side  of  that  doctrine  will  be  arrayed 


A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON          167 

the  power  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States,  with  the  usurpation  and  assertion  of 
powers  prohibited  by  the  federal  convention 
which  formed  our  written  constitution.  Upon 
the  side  of  state  rights  will  be  arrayed,  in  all 
their  greatness,  those  two  grand  fundamental 
principles  that  are  imbedded  in  the  government 
in  the  affairs  of  man,  of  God  himself,  whether 
they  relate  to  law,  politics,  or  to  religion, — that 
all  government  rests  on  the  consent  of  the  gov 
erned  and  on  the  personality  of  man.  I  repeat, 
John  Calvin — and  John  Calvin  alone — discov 
ered  the  personality  of  man;  he  found  man  a 
slave,  and  he  made  him  a  freeman ;  he  found  man 
a  subject,  and  he  made  him  a  citizen.  And  from 
this  noble,  fundamental,  irresistible  principle  is, 
by  an  unerring  logic,  deduced  that  man  has  the 
right  to  govern  himself  and  to  establish  his  own 
government,  that  when  established  it  has  no 
power,  right,  nor  authority  not  granted  by  him. 
The  doctrine  of  state  rights  is  part  and  parcel 
of  our  constitution,  which  is  not  only  a  compact, 
but  a  contract  between  the  states  composing  this 
federal  republic,  and  without  which  this  republic 
would  not  be  a  federal  government,  but  a  mon 
archy,  with  an  elective  sovereign  as  its  executive 
head.  The  doctrine  of  implied  powers  is  outside 


168          A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDEB    HAMILTON 

the  written  constitution,  and  that  compact  has 
no  provision  that  calls  for  its  operative  exercise. 
It  justly  belongs  to  a  monarchy,  of  which  the 
executive  head  is  a  king  by  inheritance.  In  the 
approaching  conflict  between  these  doctrines  the 
leader  of  the  constitutional  government  forces 
will  not  be  a  political  quack,  nor  a  political  ad 
vertiser,  nor  a  political  speculator  or  broker. 

Hamilton's  fame  as  a  statesman  rests  on  his 
resurrection  of  the  prerogative  of  the  English 
king  under  the  form  and  name  of  the  doctrine 
of  implied  powers.  In  those  brilliant  essays  in 
The  Federalist  in  which  he  himself  combined 
the  characters  of  the  diplomatic  wire-puller  and 
the  accomplished  demagogue,  concealing  each 
from  the  public  eye  by  the  charm  and  fascination 
o?  English  and  compact  logic,  I  find  that  he  him 
self,  unmindful,  or  rather  not  knowing,  that  he 
would  yet  call  this  doctrine  into  existence,  has  in 
these  very  essays  given  to  the  thoughtful  student 
of  constitutional  law  the  ablest  refutation  of 
this  doctrine.  I  quote  from  No.  LXXVIIL 

* l  The  complete  independence  of  the  courts  of 
justice  is  peculiarly  essential  in  a  limited  Con 
stitution.  By  a  limited  Constitution,  I  under 
stand  one  which  contains  certain  specific  excep- 


A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON          169 

tions  to  the  legislative  authority;  such,  for 
instance,  as  that  it  shall  pass  no  bills  of  at 
tainder,  no  ex  post  facto  laws,  and  the  like.  Lim 
itations  of  this  kind  can  be  preserved  in  practice 
no  other  way  than  through  the  medium  of  courts 
of  justice,  whose  duty  it  must  be  to  declare  all 
acts  contrary  to  the  manifest  tenor  of  the  Con 
stitution  void.  Without  this  all  the  reservations 
of  particular  rights  or  privileges  would  amount 
to  nothing  It  is  far  more  rational  to 

suppose  that  the  courts  were  designed  to  be  an 
intermediate  body  between  the  people  and  the 
legislature,  in  order,  among  other  things,  to 
keep  the  latter  within  the  limits  assigned  to  their 
authority.  The  interpretation  of  the  laws  is  the 
proper  and  peculiar  province  of  the  courts.  A 
Constitution  is,  in  fact,  and  must  be  regarded 
by  the  judges,  as  a  fundamental  law.  It  there 
fore  belongs  to  them  to  ascertain  its  meaning, 
as  well  as  the  meaning  of  any  particular  act 
proceeding  from  the  legislative  body.  If  there 
should  happen  to  be  an  irreconcilable  variance 
between  the  two,  that  which  has  the  superior  ob 
ligation  and  validity  ought,  of  course,  to  be  pre 
ferred  ;  or  in  other  words,  the  Constitution  ought 
to  be  preferred  to  the  statute;  the  intention  of 
the  people  to  the  intention  of  their  agents. 


170          A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON 

' '  Nor  does  this  conclusion  by  any  means  sup 
pose  a  superiority  of  the  judicial  to  legislative 
power.  It  only  supposes  that  the  power  of  the 
people  is  superior  to  both;  and  that  where  the 
will  of  the  legislature,  declared  in  its  statutes, 
stands  in  opposition  to  that  of  the  people  de 
clared  in  the  Constitution,  the  judges  ought  to  be 
governed  by  the  latter,  rather  than  the  former." 

The  right  or  power  to  incorporate  was  one  of 
those  "certain  specified  exceptions"  to  the  leg 
islative  authority  and  "the  like"  mentioned  by 
the  distinguished  Federalist.  No  matter  what 
the  occasion  or  its  demands,  Alexander  Hamil 
ton  always  obeyed  the  injunction  of  the  Apostle 
Paul — "to  be  all  things  to  all  men,  hoping 
thereby  to  gain  some,"  and  always  wrenching 
it  by  his  conduct  in  its  application  from  its  true 
interpretation.  I  will  close  my  argument  with  a 
short  quotation  from  Bancroft's  History  of  the 
Constitution,  Vol.  2,  page  9 : 

"That  all  power  not  granted  to  the  general 
government  remained  with  the  states  was  the 
opinion  of  every  member  of  the  Convention — 
but  they  held  it  a  work  of  supererogation  to 
place  in  the  Constitution  an  express  recognition 
of  the  reservation." 


A    STUDY    IN    ALEXANDER    HAMILTON          171 

What  a  painful  proof  of  the  finite  mind  of 


man! 

I  have  now  passed  in  what  I  believe  to  be  a 
just  review  of  Alexander  Hamilton ;  his  private 
life;  his  character;  his  theories  of  government 
as  they  are  to  be  found  in  the  Madison  Papers, 
the  notes  of  which  were  examined  by  him  and 
admitted  by  him  to  be  correct ;  his  argument  in 
behalf  of  our  written  constitution  in  The  Fed 
eralist,  by  which  he  contended  and  proved  that 
our  government  was  a  federal,  not  a  national, 
government,  and  how  in  a  moment — in  the 
twinkling  of  an  eye — he  kicked  his  theories  out 
of  his  pathway  as  loathsome  weeds  as  soon  as  he 
became  Secretary  of  the  Treasury ;  his  conduct 
and  measures  proposed  by  him  as  Secretary  of 
the  Treasury,  their  purpose,  their  aim  and  their 
object,  Jheir  influence  and  their  effect  through 
our  federal  courts  upon  our  government  and  its 
political  affairs. 

And  what  is  the  logical  conclusion?  I  answer 
my  own  question,  thus :  In  intellect  Alexander 
Hamilton  was  a  giant;  in  character  Alexander 
Hamilton  was  a  moral  weakling. 


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